U.S.-France Cooperative Research: Study of Surfactant Adsorption, Aggregation and Adsolubilization on Oxide Surfaces

University Of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa AL

Investigators

Abstract

9981597 Bakker This three-year award for U.S.-France cooperative research between Martin G. Bakker of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and Claude Treiner of the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France involves investigations of surfactant adsorption, aggregation and adsolubilization on oxide surfaces. The project includes the application of different techniques and observations of effects on counterions, surfactant structure, surface properties, and on the structure and properties of adsorbed surfactant aggregates. In particular, the investigators will apply nitroxide spin probes to surfactants on surfaces. U.S. and French graduate students would receive training in spectroscopy and other techniques and carry out some of the adsorption studies. The U.S. investigator brings to this collaboration expertise in spectroscopy and its application to studies of surfactant aggregates adsorbed on particle surfaces. This is complemented by French expertise in surfactant chemistry, adsorption, isotherms, thermodynamics, calorimetry methods and techniques. The project will advance understanding of surfactant adsorption and its impact in areas as diverse as separations, inks, paints, nanoscale devices, drug delivery, silicosis, and lung cancer. In particular, surfactant adsorption studies have important implications for water treatment and environmental clean-up because of the enormous, public use of detergents, a well-known and typical surfactant.