Experimental Conditions for HPLC Analysis of Ethoxylated Alkyl Phenol Surfactants in Microemulsion Systems. Part I. Isocratic Mode with Mixed Solvents

Abstract
In surfactant–oil–water phase behavior studies, especially those related to enhanced oil recovery, each of the oligomers of commercial polyethoxylated non-ionic surfactants partitions in a different pattern into the two or three phases in equilibrium, and a simple, fast, and accurate method is required to analyze all phases. Up to now, only oil-phase GC was relied upon to determine the partitioning without closing the surfactant inventory. Isocratic normal phase HPLC with a ternary mobile phase (n-heptane–chloroform–methanol 70–10–20) is shown to comply with these requirements to analyze the oligomer distribution in microemulsion, excess oil, and excess water phases of an optimum formulation system.

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