Effect of surfactant compounding on the wettability of talcum powder

Abstract

Talcum powder is one of the leading causes of pneumoconiosis, adding compound surfactants to the dust removal process can significantly increase the effectiveness of the dust removal. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the effect of compound surfactants on the wettability of talcum powder. This paper focuses on the ability of compound surfactants to increase the wettability of talcum powder surface by using Materials Studio 8.0. The simulation results were analyzed from the water adsorbed amount, interaction energy, and water molecule concentration profile. Combined with the experimental data of contact angle, the optimal surfactant compounding method was obtained. The simulation results revealed that stable adsorption structures can be formed by the compound of anionic and nonionic surfactants, which can reduce the electrostatic repulsion between anionic surfactants effectively and promote the directional arrangement of nonionic surfactants on the talcum powder surface. When the molar ratio of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and Polysorbate 80 was 0.4:0.6, the amount of absorbed water reached 113, which is better than monomers and other compound surfactants. The contact angle experiment results indicated a consistent variation law with the simulation results. The contact angle decreased from 68.48 to 19.84 using the compounding method mentioned above, which has the optimum wetting effect among the four compounding methods. The research results will provide a reference for the application of compound surfactants in talcum powder dustproof work.