Free Drainage And Bubble Size For Aqueous Foams Stabilized By Sodium Dodecyl Benzene Sulphonate

Foams are widely used in industrial applications such as water treatment, mineral flotation, oil recovery, etc, therefore, it is of great significance to further investigate the foam properties. This paper systematically studied the influences of gas flow rate, surfactant concentration and temperature on the properties of aqueous foams stabilized by sodium dodecyl benzene sulphonate (SDBS) in terms of foamability, foam stability, free drainage and bubble size. The results showed that at the same surfactant concentration as an increase in gas flow rate the foamability of SDBS solution continued to increase while the foam stability was nearly gas flow rate independent. When the optimal gas flow rate was chosen, at c < cmc both foamability and foam stability increased with increasing surfactant concentration, where as at c >= cmc they kept a plateau. Besides, in the range of our studied temperature, at low temperatures the foamability slightly increased with the rise of temperature, while the foam stability was less affected by temperature. At high temperatures, the foamability was almost temperature-independent, while foam stability decreased with increasing temperature, and in this system 25 degrees C was an ideal foaming temperature. These findings provide guidelines for the efficient preparation and utilization of foam in industrial applications.