ELECTROCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF ASPHALTENE PARTICLES IN AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS

The electrical properties of colloidal asphaltene/water solution interface were determined by carrying out the potentiometric titration and electrokinetic measurements. Asphaltenes in aqueous solutions exhibit typical organic colloid properties i.e. surface charge and electrophoretic mobility. It was considered that the surface charge at the asphaltene particles is a result of protonation and dissociation reactions of surface functional groups. On the base of the surface charge density data vs. pH the surface reaction constants were calculated by numerical method. The agreement of these values with calculated ones, on the base of (zeta) potential data, is noticeable. The characteristic feature of the investigated systems is the maximum, appearing on the curve (zeta) potential vs. electrolyte concentration. This behaviour is explained by „hair layer" structure of the asphaltene surface.