Alginic acid as a stabilizer of zirconia suspensions in the presence of cationic surfactants. (15th October 2020) - Grządka, E.
Highlights: Alginic acid (AA) adsorbs on the zirconia surface. Cationic surfactants interact with alginic acid. Cationic surfactants cause the improvement of the AA/ZrO2 system stability. Presence of surfactant changes the electrokinetic properties of the AA/ZrO2 system. Abstract: The influence of hydrocarbon (CTAB), fluorocarbon (S-106-A) and silicone (C-Si) cationic surfactants: on stability, adsorption and electrokinetic properties of the alginic acid (AA)/zirconia (ZrO2 ) suspensions was studied. The results obtained from the spectrophotometric measurements indicate on very high effectiveness of the surfactants in stabilization of the studied systems. This is due to the formation of multimolecular complexes between alginic acid and the surfactants. The existence of these complexes was confirmed by the surface tension and the zeta potential measurements. Presented studies also enabled the estimation of the conditions under which the complexes are effectively created and the determination of their character. These findings were also confirmed by the adsorption data. Moreover, the surface charge density measurements proved that the adsorption of AA or the AA/surfactant complexes changes the structure of the electrical double layer. The presented results may find applications in the fields of functionalized materials.