Altering the wettability of bitumen-treated glass surfaces with ionic surfactants

► Crude oil can render silica surfaces oil-wet. Aqueous surfactants solutions were used to clean such surfaces. ► Three ionic surfactants - SMNS, SDS (both anionic), and CTAB (cationic) were used. ► At high pH, SMNS and SDS were more effective than CTAB in recovering the hydrophilicity of bitumen-treated glass.