Adsorption kinetics of C10E8 at the air-water interface

The adsorption of C10E8 onto a clean air-water interface and the desorption out of an overcrowded interface due to a sudden shrinkage of a pendant bubble in a quiescent surfactant solution are studied. Video-enhanced pendant bubble tensiometry is employed for the measurement of the relaxation in surface tension. Relaxation profiles of surface tension for C10E8 molecules absorbing onto a freshly created air-water interface and desorbing out of a compressed air-water interface are obtained. The adsorption of C10E8 is found to be anticooperative from the equilibrium surface tension data compared with the prediction of the Frumkin model. The controlling mechanism of the adsorption process changes as a function of bulk concentration; it shifts from diffusion control at dilute concentration to mixed diffusive-kinetic control at more elevated bulk concentration. It is also confirmed that the desorption of C10E8 out Of a compressed interface is a mixed diffusive-kinetic controlled process. Comparison is made for the entire relaxation period of the tension data and the model predictions. Values of the diffusivity and the adsorption/desorption rate constants of C10E8 are calculated from these dynamic surface tension profiles. The values of the kinetic rate constants obtained from the desorption experiment are the same as that obtained from the clean adsorption experiment.