Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of Interfacial Properties and the Effects of Nonionic Surfactants on Hydrocarbon/Water Microemulsions

The aim of this work was to apply dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) mesoscopic simulations to study the interfacial orientation and the effect of the nonionic surfactant, hexaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C₁₂E₆), on different (oil (dodecane)/water) microemulsion systems. The Hildebrand-solubility-parameter model and Flory–Huggins/Hansen-solubility-parameter (FH/HSP) model were combined to evaluate the DPD interaction parameter (a_ij) where the solubility parameters (δ_i) as DPD input parameters were preliminary validated by all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) results and experimental data. The interfacial property dependence of dodecane/water/C₁₂E₆ system on the oil/water (o/w) ratio and on the concentration of surfactant and orientation at the interface were investigated. It was found that the surfactant addition reduced the IFT of o/w interfaces and this reduction was more efficient for water-in-oil microemulsions (o/w ≤ 1).