Impact of salts on the phase separation and thermodynamic properties of mixed nonionic surfactants in absence/attendance of polyvinyl alcohol

Mixed surfactant systems are used in different applied fields like pharmaceutical formulation rather than single surfactant. Therefore, the determination of the clouding nature of the triton X-100 (TX-100) + Tween 80 (TW-80) mixture was carried out in H2O and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). In the occurrence of PVA, the cloud point (CP) values of TX-100 initially enhance with enhancing the concentration of PVA and tend to decrease after a certain concentration. For different ratios of TX-100 and TW-80 mixture having the same concentration of both solutions, CP values increase through the decreasing ratios of TX-100 with/without PVA. In the presence of polymer, at higher ratios of TX-100 than TW-80, the CP values are higher in magnitudes in comparison to the aqueous medium but at lower ratios of TX-100, the value of CP are lower in magnitudes in comparison to the aqueous system. The CP values of the TX-100 + TW-80 mixture in the salt system are lower in magnitudes than the aqueous medium in both the absence/presence of PVA. However, a reduction of CP values was obtained to a large extent for Na2SO4 over NaCl in the case of lower volume ratios of TX-100. Various thermodynamic variables (standard free energy (Delta G(c)(o)), standard enthalpy (Delta H-c(o)), standard entropy (Delta S-c,t(o)) change, thermodynamic parameters of transfer (free energy of transfer (Delta G(c,t)(o)), and transfer of enthalpies (Delta H-c,t(o))) of phase transition) were also determined.

Automated summary

Mixed surfactant systems are commonly used in pharmaceutical formulations instead of single surfactants. The clouding nature of the TX-100 + TW-80 mixture was studied in different conditions, showing varying trends in cloud point values with the addition of polymers and salt systems. Various thermodynamic variables and parameters of phase transition were also analyzed.