Behaviour of aqueous foam stabilised by nanosilica & non-ionic surfactant

The use of nanoparticles as stabilisers in foams and emulsions has gained great attention in recent years, and is a subject of interest for many scientific and industrial fields; such as food colloids, cosmetics, chemical cleaners, metal foams and mineral flotation. Most research has focused on the use of nanoparticles as a substitute for traditional surfactants; however, research into mixed systems is also very important. This is firstly because many natural and industrial systems contain combinations of diflerent species and secondly because of the evidence for synergistic stabilisation. Using partially hydrophobic, 270nm silica particles and non-ionic Triton X-100 surfactant, the foam stability of various mixed systems was investigated to probe the parameters required for enhanced stabilisation. These results helped to highlight the possible interactions between the two species at the air-water interface. The interfacial particle-surfactant interactions were related to studied changes in system surface tension, adsorbance and surface pressure behaviour