Quantitative Description of the Surface Tension Minimum in a Two-Component Surfactant System.

ABSTRACT: The Gibbs adsorption equation is the thermodynamic cornerstone for the description and understanding of the surface tension in a surfactant solution. It relates the decrease in surface tension to an increased surfactant adsorption. In the early 1940s, it therefore puzzled researchers to sometimes observe a minimum in the surface tension for certain surfactant solutions, which seemed to indicate surfactant desorption (even depletion) according to the Gibbs adsorption equation. It is now understood that the minimum is related to contamination of the surfactant (notably by dodecanol), and its occurrence has since then been studied extensively in experiments. Still, the precise role of the (tiny amount of) contaminant present is not well understood and a quantitative description and und

SUBMITTER: Blokhuis EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12573795 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature