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Colloidal Gels Formed by Dilute Aqueous Dispersions of Surfactant and Fatty Alcohol

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Colloid Process Engineering

Abstract

Mixtures of surfactants, fatty alcohol as cosurfactant, and water often form gels, even at high dilution. We have investigated highly dilute samples of the system sodium dodecyl sulfate/cetyl alcohol/water (SDS/CA/D2O) at varying SDS/CA ratio. Gel-like samples are obtained only at low SDS/CA ratios. The phase structure and the dynamics of the molecules have been determined by a combination of proton and carbon-13 NMR spectroscopy, cryo-transmission electron microscopy, very-small-angle neutron and x-ray scattering, differential scanning calorimetry, rheology, and pulsed gradient spin echo NMR diffusometry. The gel-like character is found to be caused by jammed uni- and multilamellar vesicles.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Vitaliy Pipich, Martin Schneider and Günter Goerigk for help with the neutron scattering experiments performed with the JCNS (Jülich Centre of Neutron Science) instrument KWS-3 at the FRM II research reactor in Garching/Munich, Frank Polzer for the cryo-TEM experiments, Daniel Topgaard and Stefanie Eriksson for help with the pulsed field gradient diffusometry performed at Lund University, Hans Egold and Karin Stolte for the high resolution proton NMR measurements, and the students Johannes Brinkmann, Svenja Marl, Dagmar Moritz, Matthias Hoffmann, Malte-Ole Schneemann, Alexei Schwarz, Nikolai Sitte, Viktor Warkentin, Daniel Wiegmann, and Martin Wiesing for their support. This project was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, priority program SPP 1273.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Chemie, Universität Paderborn, Warburger Straße 100, 33098, Paderborn, Germany

    Felix Grewe, Jochen Ortmeyer, Roxana Haase & Claudia Schmidt

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  1. Felix Grewe
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  2. Jochen Ortmeyer
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  3. Roxana Haase
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  4. Claudia Schmidt
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Correspondence to Claudia Schmidt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Thermal Process Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany

    Matthias Kind

  2. Institute of Particle Technology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany

    Wolfgang Peukert

  3. Physical Chemistry II, TU Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany

    Heinz Rehage

  4. Institute of Process Engineering in Life Section I: Food Process Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany

    Heike P. Schuchmann

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Grewe, F., Ortmeyer, J., Haase, R., Schmidt, C. (2015). Colloidal Gels Formed by Dilute Aqueous Dispersions of Surfactant and Fatty Alcohol. In: Kind, M., Peukert, W., Rehage, H., Schuchmann, H. (eds) Colloid Process Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15129-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15129-8_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15128-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15129-8

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