Journal Article

FZJ-2020-03234

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Efficiency Boosting of Surfactants with Poly(ethylene oxide)-Poly(alkyl glycidyl ether)s: A New Class of Amphiphilic Polymers

Schneider, K. ; Verkoyen, P. ; Krappel, M. ; Gardiner, C. ; Schweins, R. ; Frey, H. ; Sottmann, T. (Corresponding author)

2020
ACS Publ. Washington, DC

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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/25781  doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c01491

Abstract: Twenty years ago, it was found that adding small amounts of amphiphilic block copolymers like poly(ethylene propylene)-co-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEP-b-PEO) to microemul-sion systems strongly increases the efficiency of medium-chain surfactants to solubilize water and oil. Although being predestined to serve as a milestone in microemulsion research, the effect has only scarcely found its way into applications. In this work, we propose new types of efficiency boosters, namely, poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(alkyl glycidyl ether carbonate)s (PEO-b-PAlkGE) and their “carbonated” poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(carbonate alkyl glycidyl ether) analogs. Their synthesis via anionic ring-opening polymerization (AROP) from commercially available long-chain alkyl glycidyl ethers (AlkGE) and monomethoxypoly(ethylene glycol)s as macroinitiators can be performed at low cost and on a large scale. We demonstrate that these new PEO-b-PAlkGE copolymers with dodecyl and hexadecyl side chains in the nonpolar block strongly increase the efficiency of both pure and technical-grade n-alkyl polyglycol ether surfactants to form microemulsions containing pure n-alkanes or even technical-grade waxes, a result that could be of interest for industrial applications where reduced surfactant needs would have significant economic and ecological implications. For n-decane microemulsions, the boosting effect of PEO-b-PAlkGE and PEP-b-PEO polymers can be scaled on top of each other, when plotting the efficiency semilogarithmically versus the polymeric coverage of the amphiphilic film. Interestingly, a somewhat different scaling behavior was observed for n-octacosane microemulsions at elevated temperatures, suggesting that the polymers show less self-avoidance and rather behave as almost ideal chains. A similar trend was found for the increase of the bending rigidity κ upon polymeric coverage of the amphiphilic film, which was obtained from the analysis of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements.

Keyword(s): Polymers, Soft Nano Particles and Proteins (1st) ; Soft Condensed Matter (2nd)

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. JCNS-FRM-II (JCNS-FRM-II)
2. Neutronenstreuung (JCNS-1)
3. Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ)

Research Program(s):

1. 6G4 - Jülich Centre for Neutron Research (JCNS) (POF3-623) (POF3-623)
2. 6G15 - FRM II / MLZ (POF3-6G15) (POF3-6G15)

Experiment(s):

1. KWS-1: Small angle scattering diffractometer (NL3b)

Appears in the scientific report 2020

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Database coverage:
; ; Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List ; Current Contents - Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences ; Ebsco Academic Search ; Essential Science Indicators ; IF < 5 ; JCR ; NCBI Molecular Biology Database ; Nationallizenz ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Web of Science Core Collection

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