Anomalous thickness variation of the foam films stabilized by weak non-ionic surfactants

The constant thickness (H) of metastable free films of various non-ionic surfactant solutions was measured at surfactant concentrations less than the critical micelle concentrations or solubility limits with fixed 5x10(-5) M sodium chloride (NaCl) serving as the background electrolyte. The surfactants include n-pentanol, n-octanol, methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC), polypropylene glycol (PPG-400), tetraethylene glycol monooctyl ether (C(8)E(4)), and tetraethylene glycol monodecyl ether (C(10)E(4)). H was interferometrically measured. For each surfactant in this study, the H-versus-surfactant-concentration curve finds a peak at a concentration around 5x10(-6)-1x10(-5) M and a valley at a higher concentration. The measured H values were compared to those predicted from the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory, which considers solely the contribution from electrostatic double-layer repulsion with van der Waals attraction being neglected in the present work. In determining the double-layer repulsion, the ionic strength was determined from the electrolytic conductivity measurement of the film-forming solutions and the surface potential was estimated from the zeta-potential measurement of air bubbles. It was found that the DLVO theory failed to explain the thickness variance with surfactant concentration, implying that additional non-DLVO attractive forces might be required to explain the experimental results. Finally, the possible origins of these attractive forces were discussed.