Wetting behaviour of ionic surfactants on the aluminium foil

Abstract

Abstract Aluminium foil is a versatile material used in various industries, but its inherent low wettability limits its application. Surfactant can be used as effective agents for enhancing the wettability, enabling improved surface interactions and performance. In this study, we investigated the wettability of anionic (SDS and AOT) and cationic (CTAB) surfactants prepared in water as well as in isopropanol-water solvents with the four different volume fractions (0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) on aluminium foil surfaces by measuring the contact angle. As the volume fraction of isopropanol on aluminium foil increases, the contact angle of SDS, CTAB, and AOT increases whereas the surface free energy decreases, indicating the hydrophobic nature of the surface. This trend is observed with the increasing concentrations of various solvents used. The adhesion work exhibits a linear increase with alcohol surface tension. A curvilinear variation is observed in the plots between cos θ $\theta $ and 1/ γ SL $\sqrt{{\gamma }_{\text{SL}}}$ . The plots of adhesion work versus contact angles show non-linear variation. Additionally, the plot of cos θ $\theta $ against the surface tension of alcohol and adhesion work against log C exhibit curvilinear variation. With these results, the article aims to provide valuable insights into the application of surfactants for improving the wettability of aluminium foil.