Molecular fragment dynamics study on the water-air interface behavior of non-ionic polyoxyethylene alkyl ether surfactants

Abstract

Molecular fragment dynamics (MFD) is a mesoscopic simulation technique based on dissipative particle dynamics (DPD). MFD simulations of the self-aggregation of the polyoxyethylene alkyl ether surfactants C6E6, C10E6, C12E6 and C16E6 at the water-air surface lead to equilibrium nanoscale structures and computationally determined surface tensions which are in agreement with experimental data for different surfactant concentrations. Thus, molecular fragment dynamics is a well-suited predictive technique to study the behavior of new surfactant systems.

Keywords: Computer simulation; Critical micelle concentration; Dissipative particle dynamics; Molecular fragment dynamics; Water–air interface.