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Surface Tension Measurement of Aqueous Polymer Solutions: R. Y. Z. Hu A. T. A. Wang J. P. Hartnett
Surface Tension Measurement of Aqueous Polymer Solutions: R. Y. Z. Hu A. T. A. Wang J. P. Hartnett
Polymer Solutions
R. Y. Z. Hu • The surface tension of aqueous polymer solutions of polyacrylamide (PAM),
polyacrylic acid (PAA), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), and hydroxyethyl
A. T. A. Wang
cellulose (HEC) was studied over a range of polymer concentrations by using
J. P. Hartnett the maximum bubble pressure method at temperatures ranging from 20 to
Energy Resources Center, 65 °C. The surface tension of water was also measured by the maximum bubble
University of Illinois at Chicago, pressure method as well as by the DuNoiiy ring method over the same
Chicago, Illinois temperature range. The experimental water data are in excellent agreement with
the well-established tabulated data in the literature.
For a fixed concentration, all of the polymer solutions exhibited a decrease in
surface tension with increasing temperature level. When compared with water
at a fixed temperature level, the PAM and CMC solutions showed slightly
higher surface tension values, whereas the PAA solutions yielded values equal
to those found for water. In the case of the HEC solutions, the measured
surface tensions decreased with concentration at a fixed temperature level and
were lower than the values found for water. For a concentration of 2000 wppm
the surface tension values for the hydroxyethyl cellulose were of the order of
10% lower than those for water at a fixed temperature level.
A comparison of the new measurements with the relatively limited previously
published studies showed good agreement.
Address correspondenceto Professor J. P. Hartnett, Director, Energy Resources Center, Universityof Illinoisat Chicago, P.O. Box 4348, Chicago, IL
60680-4348.
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 1991; 4:723-729
© 1991 by Elsevier Science PublishingCo., Inc., 655 Avenueof the Americas, New York, NY 10010 0894-1777/91/$3.50
723
724 R . Y . Z . Hu et al.
PRESSURE
I
[
I
I
of curvature of the bubble increases. Therefore it was conjec- ~. METERING CONTROLLER ]
tured that the maximum pressure P occurred when the VALVES
bubble formed a hemisphere of the same radius r as that of I
the tube. Thus the original equation was
SMALL
1
P = pgL + 2a/r (1) ORIFICE~ -- ~ LARGE INERT
ORIFICE GAS/AIR
where p is the density difference between the two fluids, L is PROBE SUPPLY
the hydrostatic height to the bottom of the bubble, and (7 is TANK
the surface tension.
Assuming that Eq. (1) is correct, if two tubes of different
diameters having the same hydrostatic height h were placed
in a fluid, then the difference in the maximum pressures,
PI - P2, would be given by the equation TEMP.PROBE
P1 - P2 = 2 o ( 1 / Q - l/r2) (2)
or Figure 1. Block diagram of surface tensiometer.
a = (P,- P2)/[2(1/r,- l/r2) ] (2a)
Accordingly, a measurement of the difference of the maxi- flow controller is used in conjunction with a low-flow mi-
mum pressures along with the knowledge of the tube radii crometering valve to make the gas flow independent of the
yields the surface tension. This is the basic principle of the downstream pressure. Therefore, changes in back pressure at
maximum bubble pressure method. the orifices due to changing pressure conditions or fluid level
Equation (1) is not precise because it assumes that the will not substantially affect the gas flow rate or the bubble
radius of curvature of the bubble is equal to that of the tube, formation rate. Separate metering valves at each orifice con-
that is, the bubble is a perfect hemisphere. Actually, the trol the bubble frequency and the bubble formation rate ratio
shape of the bubble departing from a tube is not hemispheri- of the large to small orifice.
cal. Bashforth and Adams [12] and Sugden [10] provide a The tensiometer also interfaces directly with a personal
detailed analysis that takes this into account. In the current computer and uses a menu-driven diskette program that al-
experiments the departure from Eq. (2a) is negligible. lows display, storage, retrieval, and graphing of data. An
automatic calibration program is provided for the system
EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS pressure transducer calibration by using well-established sur-
AND PROCEDURE face tension data for distilled water and methanol.
This SensaDyne tensiometer has a limitation on the solu-
Experimental A p p a r a t u s tion viscosity. Solutions having a viscosity higher than 1000
cP cannot be measured by this system owing to the influence
The surface tension of the polymer solutions, using deionized of pressure on the gas flow rate of the bubble formation rate
water as the solvent, was measured by a SensaDyne 6000 caused by the high viscosity.
surface tensiometer (CSC Scientific Company, Fairfax, VA) The test container used is a liquid-jacketed borosilicate
[11]. A complete description of this system, which utilizes glass beaker with a volume of 300 cm 3. The glass beaker is
the maximum bubble pressure method as outlined above, can connected with an analog controlled constant-temperature
be found in U.S. patent No. 4,446,148, which covers the circulator to maintain the desired fluid temperature for the
original SensaDyne technology. experiments.
Figure 1 presents a schematic diagram of the surface
tensiometer system. A pair of hollow glass tubes (or probes) Experimental Procedure
with orifices of different diameters are positioned at the same
distance below the surface of the liquid. Nitrogen gas is Four polymers--hydroxyethyl cellulose, polyacrylamide,
supplied to the tubes at a constant-volume flow rate, causing carboxymethyl cellulose, and polyacrylic acid--were used in
bubbles to be formed in the liquid. A constant-differential the study. In all cases deionized water was used as solvent.
Surface Tension Measurement of Polymers 725
All solutions were prepared in 2000 cm 3 glass beakers. To 10' [ S e p a r a n AP-301 o 125 WPPM
vv A 250 WPPM
minimize degradation of the polymer the aqueous solutions v~ _ o 500 WPPM
were mixed gently with a magnetic stirrer controlled by a '~"~ 1000 WPPM
v
spinner (Cole-Parmer Co.). The Carbopol solutions were o ~ ~ ~. TEMPERATURE= 22°C
neturalized with 10% NaOH to a pH value of 7.0 + 0.1 after
100 ~ Z ~ i,l n ~ V V
the polymer had dissolved in the solvent [13]. The Natrosol o
ture by using a Weissenberg rheogoniometer [15], a Brook- 10-a 10-1 10 o 101 10 z 10 s 104 106
field viscometer [16], and a capillary tube viscometer [17]. 7 (.e)
The surface tension measurements were then carried out (a)
using the following procedure:
........ , ........ , ........ , ........ L ........ , ........ , .......
1. The SensaDyne system was calibrated with measurements
101
of Milli-Q water (Milli-Q water is a deionized, double-dis- [Carbopol 9341 I o~° ooo.
.......
~,8°°"PPM
tilled water made with the Milli-Q water purification TEMPERATURE=25~C
system, MiUipore Corp., Bedford, MA) and methanol.
These measurements were carried out at several tempera-
ture levels ranging from 20 to 65"C. 10 °
o
2. The surface tension of a polymer solution was measured m 0 []
O
O
over the same temperature range. 0
o
2 5 o WPPM 0 Milli- Q water
CMC 7H4 a.
5 0 0 WPPM Ll Milli Q water[6]
o
1 0 0 0 WPPM K] Dei~nized water
v 2 0 0 0 WI'PM 75 '~' Delonized water(Du Nouy rilig)
vvs~. - - rJbulated water data[18]
iTEMPERATURE=22°C
[] o o _
v
.~ 10 -1 70
o A O [] V
0 0
~A O v
00 zx 0 V
65
O 0 A BE~
A
O ,~,~A
o
°o o
,t0 =2 . . . . . i .... ....... , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i ....... , ...... 60
15 20 25 30 35 40 4 5
10-~ 10-1 10 ° 101 102 10 a 104 105
T (see-') T (°C)
(a)
Figure 4. Surface tension measurements of water at different
temperatures.
10 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . I . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . I . . . . . . . . .
solutions.
Figure 4 presents the measured surface tension as a func-
tion of temperature of all water samples used in this study. 60 r ,
From this figure we can see that the measured water data are 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
in very good agreement with the tabulated water data [17] T (°C)
(less than 1% difference for all measurements). In particular,
the measured surface tension of deionized water (which was Figure 5. Surface tension measurements of the Separan AP-30
used as the solvent for all of the polymer solutions) is also solutions at different temperatures.
Surface Tension Measurement of Polymers 727
80 80
I ~ 25[} ~PPM
I CMC 7H4 5{){) w PP~,~ I Natrosol 250HHRI o .........
[3 /000 ~PPM
V toOo wP;'xl [ ] IDO{~ WI'PM
- -- Tabulated water data
75 V 2000 WPpM !
75 [] Shima's data[3]
- Tabulated ~ater data i
~. I P a u l s data[SJ I
~. ~'~ ~ A Mmws , l a t a [ l I
V j 0 ". - 5~ Shl~a s data[3]
70 -- -- [3zxV 0 o
70 • 0 ~'~'--. , ,
F m
E .... ~,V ~' ZX 0
tD m, zx o '-..
b
65 65 • s
A 0
T (°c) T (°C)
Figure 7. Surface tension measurements of the CMC 7H4 solu- Figure 8. Surface tension measurements of the Natroso1250HHR
tions at different temperatures. solutions at different temperatures.
728 R . Y . Z . Hu et al.
Figure 9. Surface tension versus solution concentration for the g gravitational acceleration, 980.6 cmJs 2
Natrosol 250HHR solutions. P maximum bubble pressure, dyn/cm z
L hydrostatic height, cm
r tube radius, cm
wppm parts per million by weight
the same polymer, but Miaw used the Natrosol 250H poly-
mer. The HEC polymer used by Shima et al is manufactured Greek Symbols
by Shinetsu Chemical Industries, Japan. Again, as in the 5, shear rate, s - 1
pelyacrylamide measurements, the difference in the reported 7/ steady shear rate apparent viscosit26 poise
surface tension measurements for the hydroxyethyl cellulose P density difference PC -- P V, g / c m j
is not large considering the fact that different polymers were (7 surface tension of fluid, dyn/cm
used by the various investigators.
REFERENCES
PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
I. Shima, A., Tsujino, T., and Tanaka, J., Studies of BubbleBehavior
It is generally recognized that the fluid mechanical and heat and Non-Newtonian viscosity of Polymer Solutions (Report 1),
Rep. Inst. High Speed Mech. (Tohoku Univ., Japan), 46,
transfer behavior of viscoelastic fluid differ substantially from
103-129, 1983.
the corresponding behavior of Newtonian fluids under turbu-
2. Tsujino,T., and Shima, A., Studies of Bubble Behavior and Non-
lent channel flow conditions. Such fluids are frequency en-
Newtonian Viscosity of Polymer Solutions (Report 2), Rep. Inst.
countered in the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and food High Speed Mech. (Tohoku Univ., Japan), 46, 131-151, 1983.
industries, where they undergo flow and heat transfer pro- 3. Tsujino, T., and Shima, A., Studies of Bubble Behavior and Non-
cesses. Accordingly it is important to understand the behavior Newtonian Viscosity of Polymer Solutions (Report 3), Rep. Inst.
of these fluids to properly design systems to handle them. High Speed Mech. (Tohoku Univ., Japan), 46, 153-180, 1983.
The desire to understand the pool boiling performance of 4. Miaw, C. B., A Study of Heat Transfer to Dilute Polymer Solutions
these viscoelastic fluids is an obvious extension of forced in Nucleate Pool Boiling, Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. of Michigan, Ann
convection studies. Such pool boiling studies are aimed at Arbor, 1978.
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importance. 32, 5-41, 1851.
A major physical property affecting boiling performance is 8. Jaeger, F. M., Uber die Temperaturabh~ingigkeitder molekularen
surface tension. In preparation for initiating an extensive freien Oberfl~ichenenergievon Fliissigkeitenim Temperaturbereich
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399-423, 1892.
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CONCLUDING REMARKS mum Pressure in Bubbles, J. Chem. Soc., 121, 858-866, 1922.
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The maximum bubble pressure method provides a convenient Scientific Company, Inc., Fairfax, Va., 1988.
and reliable method for measuring the surface tension of 12. Bashforth, F., and Adams, J. C., An Attempt to Test the Theory
aqueous polymer solutions. The Separan solutions, which are of Capillary Action, CambridgeUniv. Press and Deightom, Bell &
the most viscous (and the most elastic) of the solutions Co., 1883.
Surface Tension Measurement of Polymers 729
13. B.F. Goodrich Chemical Group, Carbopol Water Soluble Resins, 16. Brookfield Viscometer Operation Manual, Brookfield Engineering
the B.F. Goodrich Company, Specialty Polymer and Chemical Laboratories, Inc., Stoughton, Mass., 1985.
Division, Cleveland, Ohio, 1989. 17. Yoo, S. S., Heat Transfer and Friction Factor for Non-Newtonian
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Soluble Polymer: Physical and Chemical Properties, Cellulose & Chicago, Chicago, 1974.
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15. The Weissenberg Rheogoniometer Instruction Manual, Sanga-
mort Controls, Ltd., North Bersted, Bognor Regis, Sussex, England,
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