Effect of hydrocarbon chain length on adsorption of cationic surfactants onto clinoptilolite

Bahri Ersoy*, Mehmet S. Çelik

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

55 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The adsorption behavior of quaternary ammonium cationic surfactants with different hydrocarbon chain lengths, i.e. HDTMA (hexadecyltrimethylammonium), TDTMA (tetradecyltrimethylammonium) and DDTMA (dodecyltrimethylammonium), onto clinoptilolite has been investigated. The adsorption isotherms of these surfactants are correlated with the potential curves of clinoptilolite. Accordingly, the applicability of the hemimicelle hypothesis to the adsorption of cationic surfactants at the clinoptilolite/water interface considering in the electrical double layer (EDL) of clinoptilolite is discussed. Even though the adsorption occurs in the EDL of clinoptilolite, the adsorption of HDTMA, TDTMA and DDTMA onto clinoptilolite is not conveniently described by the hemimicelle hypothesis. The absence of all expected marked increase in the potential curves at the hemimicelle concentration is ascribed to the large external cation exchange capacity of clinoptilolite. The hydrocarbon chain length of surfactant molecules is found to have a significant effect on the ion exchange as well as hydrophobic interaction mechanisms. The effectiveness of both ion exchange and hydrophobic interactions increases with increasing chain length, and so the greatest surfactant adsorption onto clinoptilolite was obtained by HDTMA.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)172-180
Number of pages9
JournalClays and Clay Minerals
Volume51
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2003

Keywords

  • Adsorption
  • Cationic surfactant
  • Clinoptilolite
  • Double layer
  • Hydrophobic interaction
  • Ion exchange
  • Potential

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