Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.120, No.50, 12901-12910, 2016
Competitive Adsorption of Naphthenic Acids and Polyaromatic Molecules at a Toluene-Water Interface
The early-stage competitive co-adsorption of interfacially active naphthenic acids (NAs) and polyaromatic (PA) molecules to a toluene water interface from the bulk toluene phase was studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The NA molecules studied had the same polar functional group but different cycloaliphatic nonpolar tails, and a perylene bisimide (PBI)-based molecule was used as a representative PA compound. The results from our simulations suggest that the size and structural features of NA molecules greatly influence the interfacial activity of PA molecules and partitioning of NA molecules at the toluene water interface. At low concentrations of PA (similar to 2.3 wt %) and NA (similar to 0.4 wt %) molecules, NA molecules containing large cycloaliphatic rings (e.g., four rings) or with a very long aliphatic tail (e.g., carbon chain length of 14) were observed to impede the migration of PA molecules to the interface, whereas small NA. molecules containing two "cycloaliphatic "rings had little effect on the adsorption of PA molecules at the toluene water interface. At high NA concentrations, the adsorption of PA molecules (similar to 6.75-17.25 wt %) was greatly hindered by the presence of small NA molecules (similar to 4.6-4.8 wt %) due to the solvation of PA nanoaggregates in the bulk. Adsorption mechanisms of PA and NA molecules at toluene water interfaces were clarified through a detailed analysis on the interactions among different species in the system. The results obtained from this work provide insights into designing appropriate chemical demulsifiers or co-demulsifiers for breaking water-in-oil emulsions of great industrial applications.