Sorbent Mass Variation Method: A New Possibility for the Determination of Binding Isotherms

Measurement of equilibrium mass fraction of a surfactant as a function of the sorbent mass fraction was performed on gel sorbent-solution systems in order to determine binding isotherms and to calculate fundamental characteristics of the solvation layer. With application of this new method, it was possible to calculate specific solvation/sorption capacity and absolute average local composition of the solvation layer. It has been pointed out by systematic variation of the composition (hydrophobicity) and degree of cross-linking of the gel sorbents that the ratio of components in the solvation layer can be constant in a given range of equilibrium mass fraction of the sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and that the specific solvation/sorption capacity of gel sorbents can be much greater than that of activated carbon type adsorbents. On the basis of a mixed sorbent model, it turned out from calculations that there is no preferential binding of SDS close to the chemical cross-links and that the surfactant molecules prefer vinyl acetate groups as binding sites. The density of cross-links regulates the aggregation number of the bound surfactant as well. For loose gels, both binding isotherms and swelling curves show that the surfactant-polymer interaction is a strongly cooperative process. The result of these experiments may influence the general concept of solvation/sorption isotherms and all related phenomena.