Thermodynamics of mixed anionic/nonionic surfactant adsorption on alumina

The adsorption of sodium dodecyl sulfate and a polyethoxylated nonylphenol, and well defined mixtures thereof, was measured on gamma-alumina. A pseudo-phase separation model to describe mixed anionic/nonionic admicelle (adsorbed surfactant aggregate) formation was developed, analogous to the pseudo-phase separation model frequently used to describe mixed micelle formation. In this model, regular solution theory was used to describe the anionic/nonionic surfactant interactions in the mixed admicelle and a patch-wise adsorption model was used to describe surfactant adsorption on a heterogeneous solid surface. The formation of mixed anionic/nonionic admicelles in the absence of micelles was accurately described by regular solution theory; mixed admicelle formation exhibited stronger negative deviations from ideality than mixed micelle formation. An adequate description of mixed anionic/nonionic admicelle formation in the presence of mixed micelles was obtained through a simultaneous solution of the pseudo-phase separation models for mixed admicelle and mixed micelle formation, and the appropriate mass balance equations. Anionic/nonionic mixed adsorption in the presence of mixed micelles was shown to correspond to an admicelle composition of approximately a 1:1 anionic/nonionic mole ratio throughout Regions II and III of the adsorption isotherm.