Influence of surface active agents on the mass transfer across liquid—liquid interfaces—I. Dioxane—toluene—water-system

The instantaneons concentration of dioxane in freely suspended single toluene droplets was measured for an extremely wide range of droplet ages (0—600 sec) by means of a modified scintillation technique and the age dependence of the overall coefficients of mass transfer was evaluated. With increasing droplet age four consecutive exchange processes dominate with different decay constants for the concentration of solute which have very high, high, low, and very low exchange rates due to interfacial disturbances, turbulent internal mixing, transient internal mixing and desorption from the interface respectively.The decay constants of the first two processes decrease and the last two remain constant with increasing concentration of surface active agents. The overall decay constant decreases, goes through a minimum, increases, passes a maximum and finally decreases with increasing concentration of surface active agents. An explanation for this behaviour is given.