Understanding and Prediction of the Clouding Phenomenon by Spontaneous and Effective Packing Concepts

Understanding and Prediction of the Clouding Phenomenon by Spontaneous and Effective Packing Concepts. N2 - In this work, we show by which mechanism branching of the hydrocarbon chains influences the cloud point of nonionic, ethoxylated surfactants. The temp.-induced sepn. into a dil. and a concd. liq. phase is of liq.-gas type and can be explained by the relative probability of endcaps and branching points of the cylindrical micelles in both phases. The influence of branches on the hydrocarbon chains can be easily understood by means of spontaneous and effective packing concepts, while quantification via hydrophilic/lipophilic balance (HLB), hydrophilic-lipophilic difference (HLD), and HLD-Net Av. Curvature requires parametrization. The phase equil. above the cloud point phenomenon is equiv. to the Winsor I type phase equil., one of the five known phase equil. in ternary systems