(232t) Effect of Surfactant Architecture on Micelle and Reverse Micelle from iSAFT Molecular Density Functional Theory

Surfactants reduce the interfacial tension making them an important additive in a number of industrial and commercial applications from enhanced oil recovery to personal care products (e.g., shampoo, detergents, etc). Understanding the phase behavior of surfactants is of vital importance to effectively and economically utilizing surfactants for various applications. For example, producing ultra-low interfacial tensions needed for enhanced oil recovery requires the formation of a middle phase microemulsion. Determining the surfactant architecture (e.g., type of surfactant and head/tail size) and fluid conditions (e.g., temperature and salinity) to produce the middle phase microemulsion involves trial and error experiments. A predictive molecular model would provide guidance to effectively screen surfactants. As the basic surfactant aggregates, micelle and reverse micelle structures as well as surface stress calculations should lead to improved understanding of the middle phase microemulsion.

Interfacial Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (iSAFT) classical density functional theory has been developed and utilized to study surfactants and other complex fluids. In current work, iSAFT is applied to study the effect of surfactant architecture on the formation of micelle and reverse micelle structures in solution. Further, the elements necessary to produce a middle phase microemulsion are investigated.