Wettability modification of Wender lignite by adsorption of dodecyl poly ethoxylated surfactants with different degree of ethoxylation: A molecular dynamics simulation study

Lignite is an important and useful fossil fuel in the world and the strong hydrophilicity of it limits its applications. Surfactant adsorption on lignite is an effective way to make it hydrophobic. In this work, aiming to examine the effect of the degree of ethoxylation on the adsorption behavior of dodecyl poly ethoxylated surfactants on lignite and the wettability modification of modified lignite by surfactant adsorption, different combined systems formed by surfactants, water and a model surface of Wender lignite have been studied using molecular dynamics simulation. The adsorption configurations vary with the degree of ethoxylation. At the same adsorption amounts, increasing the degree of ethoxylation can make the adsorption layer more compactness and bring stronger adsorption strength. The results of binding energy and its components show that the adsorption of alkyl polyoxyethylene ethers surfactant on lignite is physically adsorbed rather than electrostatically or chemisorbed. Meanwhile, van der Waals interaction plays a dominant role in the adsorption. The addition of surfactant could reduce the possibility of the interaction between water and lignite. Compared to the original lignite, the interaction between them is weakened after surfactant adsorption in water/surfactant/lignite system, thus strengthening the hydrophobicity of lignite. Similar to the adsorption strength, hydrophobicity of modified lignite increases with the increase of the degree of ethoxylation. The lignite surface properties are changed due to surfactant adsorption by analyzing the compositions of interaction energy and the change of hydrogen bonds.