Construction and performance evaluation of a highly efficient mixed foaming system

Abstract

To develop a highly efficient foaming agent, the fluorocarbon surfactant (4-hydroxyethylether) (pentadecafluoroalkyl) amide was designed and synthesized and the surface activity and foaming performance were investigated through surface tension, surface viscosity and foaming performance measurements. The results show that the fluorocarbon surfactant has superior surface activity and can reduce the surface tension of water to 15.3 mN m⁻¹. When used as a foaming agent, it also shows great advantages over conventional hydrocarbon surfactants. For the sake of cost reduction, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was added to construct a highly efficient foaming agent. The results show that the mixture has superior surface activity and great foaming ability. Surface viscosity measurements show that surface viscosity of the mixture is much higher than that of single SDS. The foam integrated value of the mixture is enhanced by about 67% compared to SDS. The optimized formula of the foaming system is 0.03–0.08% HPA4 + 0.20–0.40% SDS.