The interaction between polymer and AOT or NaDEHP in aqueous solution: mesoscopic simulation study and surface tension measurement

The interaction of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) with sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT) and sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (NaDEHP) in the solution was investigated by dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulation. The calculated interaction parameters between PVP and AOT or NaDEHP showed that AOT is in favor to form polymer–surfactant complex with PVP in contrast to NaDEHP. The experiment of surface tension measurement proved the computational results. In DPD simulation, the mean square end-to-end distance 〈r2〉 of polymer chain firstly increases in size, then reduces and increases again. And some polymer–surfactant complexes were also shown. One conclusion is that mesoscopic simulation can be considered as an adjunct to experiment and provide other valuable information for the experiment.