CO2-responsive interfacial-active materials have potentials in various applications, because of their ability to modify interfacial properties precisely and exquisitely during continuous operation. There are not only growing demands of developing versatile and cost-efficient chemicals and understanding their switching behavior, but also great interests in proving their feasibilities in applications. Herein, we present general strategies of constructing CO2-responsive surfactant assemblies based on electrostatic attraction between amines and fatty acids on the interface, which allows easy fabrication, facile tunability, and possibility of scale-up. Interfacial activity and switching behavior were found to be readily adjusted as desired by selecting the types of amines and fatty acids, respectively. Dynamic IFT experiments not only revealed that switches upon CO2 addition are rapid and significant, but also illustrated that responsive behaviors are not necessary to be the same in bulk and on the interface. These CO2-responsive surfactant assemblies were successfully applied to enhance heavy oil recovery in northern Canada oil sands by finely controlling interfacial properties at different operation stages. This study highlighted the strategies of constructing CO2-responsive assemblies in facile manners and controlling their switching behavior on the interface. The results from this study provide valuable guidelines on designing CO2-responsive chemicals applications.

Strategies of optimizing CO2-responsive assemblies by understanding their switching behaviors and feasibility in application

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.