The selective partitioning of the oligomers of polyethoxylated surfactant mixtures between interface and oil and water bulk phases

Because their affinities for the oil and water phases vary considerably with the number of ethylene oxide units in their hydrophilic group, the ethoxylated nonionic species occurring in commercial products tend to behave in a non-collective way, with the low ethoxylation oligomers partitioning mostly in the oil phase. This results in a surfactant mixture at the interface which is more hydrophilic than the one which was introduced in the system in the first place. The pseudophase model is used to study the partitioning in Winsor III type systems, and to estimate the deviation of the interfacial mixture composition from the overall one. New results indicate that the selective partitioning into the oil phase increases when the oil phase becomes aromatic, when the total surfactant concentration decreases and when the water-to-oil ratio decreases.