Temperature Resistant Binary SLES/Nonionic Surfactant Mixtures at the Air/Water Interface

Surface compositions of adsorbed monolayers at the air/water interface, formed from binary surfactant mixtures in equilibrium, have been studied using neutron reflectivity at three discrete temperatures: 10, 25, and 40 °C. The binary compositions studied are sodium lauryl dodecyl ether sulfate (SLES EO3)/C12E n, where n = 6 and 8, at a fixed concentration of 2 mM with and without the addition of 0.1 M NaCl. Without NaCl, the nonionic surfactant dominates at the interface and nonideal mixing behavior is observed. This is modeled using the pseudophase approximation with a quadratic expansion of the free energy of mixing. The addition of 0.1 M NaCl screens the charge interaction between the surfactants and drives the surface composition of each system closer to that of the bulk composition. However, model fits to both the micelles and surface layers suggest that nonideal mixing is still taking place, although it is difficult to establish the extent of nonideality due to the limited data quality. The effect of temperature changes on the surface adsorption and composition of the surfactant mixtures is minimal and within error, with and without NaCl, but the critical micelle concentrations are significantly affected. This indicates the dominant influence of steric hindrances and surfactant charge interactions in determining interfacial behavior for these surfactants, relative to the temperature changes. The study also highlights the delicate effect of a relatively small change in the number of EO groups on mixing behavior.