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 pseudophase 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. Published by Elsevier Inc.