Acta Chimica Sinica ›› 2020, Vol. 78 ›› Issue (2): 155-160.DOI: 10.6023/A19100364 Previous Articles     Next Articles

Article

“拟双子”阴离子表面活性剂在癸烷/水界面的分子动力学模拟

高斯萌, 夏坤, 康志红, 乃永宁, 袁瑞霞, 牛瑞霞   

  1. 东北石油大学化学化工学院 大庆 163318
  • 投稿日期:2019-10-12 发布日期:2020-01-11
  • 通讯作者: 高斯萌, 牛瑞霞 E-mail:gaosimeng2006@126.com;niuruixia999@sina.com
  • 基金资助:
    项目受国家自然科学基金(No.21606042)、东北石油大学培育基金(No.2017PYQZL-08)和东北石油大学人才工程科研启动基金(No.RC201724)资助.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of “Quasi-Gemini” Anionic Surfactant at the Decane/Water Interface

Gao Simeng, Xia Kun, Kang Zhihong, Nai Yongning, Yuan Ruixia, Niu Ruixia   

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318
  • Received:2019-10-12 Published:2020-01-11
  • Supported by:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21606042), Northeast Petroleum University Cultivation Fund (No. 2017PYQZL-08) and Northeast Petroleum University Talent Engineering Research Start Fund (No. RC201724).

Anionic surfactants play a key role in many industrial fields such as drug delivery, detergent, oil displacement and food processing because of their unique amphiphilic properties. The structure of surfactant in oil-water system has a great influence on the interfacial behavior. It is of great significance to study the structure and interfacial properties of surfactants. In this paper, the all-atomic molecular dynamics method was used to study the aggregation behavior of nonylphenol-substituted series of alkyl sulfonate surfactants (Cn-NPAS) at the decane/water interface. The effects of different sulfoalkyl chain lengths on the interfacial properties of nonylphenol-substituted alkyl sulfonate surfactants were investigated by analyzing the interface thickness, interface formation energy, interfacial tension, the radial distribution function and coordination number. Simulation results have shown that the interfacial thickness increases at first and then decreases as the length of sulfoalkyl chain increases. The same trend was found in the results of the interface formation energy (IFE). The absolute value of IFE follows the order of C12-NPAS > C14-NPAS > C10-NPAS > C16-NPAS > C8-NPAS, indicating that the C12-NPAS is the most stable system in terms of energy which should be attribute to the stronger aggregation ability. Moreover, it is observed that the trend of interfacial tension is in agreement with that of interface formation energy and the interface thickness. Surfactant C12-NPAS induces the minimum interfacial tension. The calculation results are consistent with the experimental data. Furthermore, the radial distribution function and the coordination number of water around the surfactant headgroup were obtained for evaluating the interaction strength between the hydrophilic headgroup and water molecules. The results are well in accordance with the trend of the interface formation energy and interfacial tension. This indicates that the length of alkyl tail affect the interaction between hydrophilic headgroup and water indirectly. Simulation results suggest that the length of alkyl tail plays a dominant role in the interfacial behaviors. We expect that the results of this study could be valuable for the understanding of mechanism and the design of high performance surfactants.

Key words: nonylphenol substituted alkyl sulfonate, molecular dynamics, interface property, oil-water interface, aggregation behavior