Non-ionic surfactants adsorption: structure and thermodynamics

Adsorption of non-ionic surfactants from aqueous solutions has been studied for years because of its industrial relevance. These surfactants, made of an aliphatic part attached to a hydrophilic and polar chain, play an important role in diverse applications. Modelling of the adsorption mechanisms of surfactants has traditionally been based on the interpretation of adsorption isotherms. However, this first level of investigation is not sufficient for a complete understanding. Direct inspection of the adsorbed layer of non-ionic surfactant molecules at the solid–liquid interface is needed. This is an active field of research for almost 15 years, even if the subject is not completely settled down. The aim of this paper is to present a short review of this topic. I will restrict this paper to the case of non-ionic adsorption onto hydrophilic or polar solid interfaces. In the first part, I comment some experimental studies of non-ionic adsorption layer, including fluorescence spectroscopy, neutron scattering and atomic force microscopy. In the second part, a theoretical discussion about thermodynamics of adsorption is presented. A model involving an aggregative adsorption process is proposed. This last part will permit to raise some interesting questions concerning the role of the so-called ‘normal interaction’ (surfactant/solid interaction) to select the optimal surface aggregate curvature. To cite this article: P.E. Levitz, C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 665–673.