Effect of hydrophobically modified PEO polymers (PEO-dodecyl) on oil/water microemulsion properties: in vitro and in silico investigations

Abstract

In this work, we study the effect of grafted PEO-dodecyl co-polymers on the decane/water microemulsions properties. For this purpose, we combined the MD simulations, the OZ integral equations resolved using the HNC closure, and SANS experiments.

Dynamic properties of decane/water microemulsions decorated with hydrophobically modified PEO Polymer (PEO-C12): A molecular dynamics simulations study

“…This behaviour of Dc indicates that the correlation between the MEs becomes important, as Np increases. This result has been observed in previous similar work [15,18]. Fig.…”

“…▪ To the bare MEs, we add a telechelic polymer with one end (PEO-C12), which induces a steric repulsive potential V(r) between nanodroplets, defined in eq. ( 5), These results are consistent with a similar study examining the effect of adding polymer with one hydrophobic end functions, PEO-m, on the interaction potential between charged MEs droplets [15]. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is based on determining the trajectories and velocities of atoms through the numerical solution of the equations of motion.…”

“…Recently, the authors have focused on the combination of SANS, the IEM with the Hypernetted Chain (HNC) closure and Molecular Dynamics simulations (MD) to study the structure and dynamics of the mixtures MEs/polymers (PEO-C12, PEO-2 C12), for various volume fractions Φ (2.8%, 6.98%, 14%, 26.5%) and moderate quantities of polymers Np (from 4 to 12) [14][15][16]. P. Malo de Molina et al combined SANS, DLS, high frequency rheology measurements, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to investigate dynamic and structural properties of (TDMAO/decane/water) MEs, with telechelic polymers, poly (N, N-dimethylacrylamide) [17], and (C18-PEO150-C18) [18].…”

Sol/gel transition of oil/water microemulsions controlled by surface grafted triblock copolymer dodecyl–PEO227–dodecyl: molecular dynamics simulations with experimentally validated interaction potential

“…18,19 In a recent report, we conducted a study concerning the control of steric repulsions by adding hydrophobic PEO 227 -dodecyl polymers to induce microemulsion occulation. 20 Also, the addition of electrolytes in colloidal suspensions is reported to reduce the range of repulsion, resulting in aggregation due to van der Waals or other attractions. 21 However, this method requires control of salts concentrations, which may be difficult for materials processing.…”

“…The electrostatic repulsion is resulting from the number of charges per microemulsion. 20 The steric interaction results from the cover polymers excluded volume. 20 The strength of the steric repulsion interaction introduced by the gra polymers is signicant for the good-solvent case, and it is attributed to the osmotic interactions between the polymers segments surrounding each microemulsion.…”