Recovery and Recycling of CO2/N2‐Switchable Anionic Surfactants in Emulsions |
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| Authors: | Ye Fan Yuandi Zhang Xuefeng Liu Kai Zhong Zan Ge |
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| Affiliation: | 1. , Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Ministry of Education, Wuxi, People's Republic of China;2. Zanyu Technology Group CO. Ltd, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China |
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| Abstract: | To develop a mild, effective, and clean strategy for recovery and recycling of anionic surfactants in CO2/N2‐switchable emulsions, a CO2/N2‐switchable anionic surfactant, which is a combination of dodecyl seleninic acid (DSA) and N,N,N′,N′‐tetramethyl‐1,2‐ethylenediamine (TMEDA), here referred to as DSA–TMEDA, was used to stabilize an oil‐in‐water (O/W) emulsion. Upon stimulation with CO2, DSA–TMEDA was switched off to form insoluble DSA and the water‐soluble TMEDA bicarbonate. Upon N2 bubbling and heating, the OFF state of DSA–TMEDA was restored to the surfactant of DSA–TMEDA. In this manner, O/W emulsions stabilized by DSA–TMEDA can be switched reversibly between demulsification (phase separation) and re‐emulsification (recovered emulsion) by triggering with CO2/N2 over ten times. After breakage of the emulsion, nearly all of the OFF state surfactant could be separated conveniently away from the oil phase, thus facilitating recovery and recycling of the surfactant afterward in emulsifying oil. No obvious adverse changes in the dispersed oil particles size and the relative stability of the regenerated emulsions were observed over five cycles, and the surfactant loss can be neglected during the recycling. |
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| Keywords: | Recovery and recycling CO2/N2‐switchable Anionic surfactants Emulsions |
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