Chinese Journal of Computational Physics ›› 2024, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (2): 193-202.DOI: 10.19596/j.cnki.1001-246x.8701

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Ionic Regulation Mechanisms of Surfactant Desorption from the Spherical Micelles

Boyao WEN1(), Genying GAO2, Xi LU3, Songtao GUAN4, Zhengyuan LUO1, Bofeng BAI1,*()   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China
    2. Engineering Technology Research Institute of Xinjiang Oilfield Company, Karamay, Xinjiang 834000, China
    3. Petroleum Exploration and Production Research Institute, SINOPEC, Beijing 100083, China
    4. Xinjiang Xinchun Petroleum Development Company Limited, SINOPEC, Wusu, Xinjiang 833000, China
  • Received:2023-02-08 Online:2024-03-25 Published:2024-04-03
  • Contact: Bofeng BAI

Abstract:

A coarse-grained molecular dynamics method coupled with umbrella sampling is developed to study the desorption process of SDS and CTAC surfactants from spherical micelles. The influence mechanisms of aggregation number, salt species and concentrations on the desorption process of surfactant from spherical micelles are revealed. We find that the radius and eccentricity of spherical micelles both increase with aggregation number rising, and the effects of salt concentration depend on the ionic radius and adsorption characteristics of the counterions. Larger salicylate ions with stronger adsorption ability have more significant effect on the micellar structures. Based on umbrella sampling method, we obtain the desorption free energy and time of surfactants from micelles. we find that the desorption free energy and desorption time of surfactant both show a non-monotonic variation with the increase of aggregation number and salt concentration, whose mechanisms are attributed to the electrostatic shielding induced by ion adsorption on micelle surface. Moreover, we reveal that the free energy plays a leading role in surfactant desorption process. Combing the theory of micelle thermodynamics, we further develop the critical micelle concentration prediction method, and obtain the distribution range of micelle size under the critical micelle concentration of surfactants.

Key words: micelle, surfactant desorption, ionic regulation, molecular dynamics, free energy calculation

CLC Number: