Effect of surfactants on the elasticity of the liquid--liquid interface

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to explore how surfactants influence the elasticity and stability of liquid-liquid interfaces, revealing a transition from tension-dominated to bending rigidity-dominated behavior.

Contribution

It demonstrates how surfactants can alter interfacial properties, showing a crossover in fluctuation spectra from tension to bending rigidity dominance at near-zero interfacial tension.

Findings

Interface remains stable even at near-zero tension.

Crossover from $q^2$ to $q^4$ in fluctuation spectrum.

Bending rigidity dominates when interfacial tension is nearly zero.

Abstract

We investigated the effect of surfactants on an interface between two kinds of liquid by molecular dynamics simulation. We adopted the simple bead-spring model with two atoms as the surfactants. We controlled the interfacial tension of the surfactant adsorbed on the interface by changing the bond length. Although the interface's structure changed depending on the magnitude of the interfacial tension, the interface was stable even under conditions where the interfacial tension was virtually zero. The Fourier spectrum of the fluctuations of the surface structure showed a crossover from $q^2$ to $q^4$ when the interfacial tension was almost zero, where $q$ is the wavenumber. This crossover means that the bending rigidity is dominant for the restoring force when the surfactant molecules are sufficiently absorbed on the interface and the interfacial tension is almost zero, whereas the interfacial tension is dominant when the interfacial tension is a finite value.