Interfacial Properties of Imidazoline Cationic Surfactant

In this study, interfacial properties were measured for imidazoline type cationic surfactant system which has been widely used as a fabric softener, a dispersant, an anti-static agent, a bleach activator, and an emulsifier. The CMC of imidazoline surfactant was near 6 mol/L and the surface tension at CMC was about 32 mN/m. It was found that surface tension was not affected by surfactant concentration but decreased with an increase in pH. The interfacial tension between 1 wt% aqueous solution and n-dodecane was shown to be about 0.01 mN/m and equilibration time was not affected by pH. Phase behavior experiment in a binary aqueous surfactant system showed that only micellar solution of phase was found under conditions of temperature and pH investigated during this study. Only a two-phase region consisting of lower-phase microemulsion in equilibrium with excess oil phase existed under the same conditions, when oil was added to the binary surfactant system. The foam stability measured with 1 wt% surfactant solution increased with pH, which is consistent with surface tension measurement result. QCM(quartz crystal microbalance) measurement showed that surfactant adsorption increased with surfactant concentration but decreased with pH. According to the friction measurement, best fabric softening effect by imidazoline surfactant system was found under alkali conditions.