Effects of electrolytes and polarity of organic liquids on the coalescence of droplets at aqueous-organic interfaces

The coalescence rate of aqueous droplets in organic media was studied experimentally. The effects of electrolytes with cations and anions of various valencies, and organic liquids of different polarities were investigated, and the results were compared with coalescence rate data of organic droplets in aqueous media of previous authors. It was found that for the cases of polar organic liquids, the effects of dissolved electrolytes on the coalescence of aqueous droplets in organic media was just the opposite to that of organic droplets in aqueous media. The coalescence rates of aqueous droplets increase and those of organic droplets decrease with the increase of electrolyte concentrations, but in the case of methyl isobutyl ketone, electrolytes of trivalent cations or anions, such as AlCl₃, LaCl₃, FeCl₃ and Na₃PO₄, increase the coalescence rates of aqueous droplets and reduce those of organic droplets strongly only within certain concentration ranges. Their effects are not nearly as pronounced outside these ranges. For the case of nonpolar organic liquids, dissolved electrolytes give no significant effect on the coalescence rates of either aqueous or organic droplets. The effects of electrolytes on the coalescence processes of liquid droplets is not significantly related to the bulk viscosity of the film liquids and the interfacial properties between the phases. It is more likely that these effects are caused by the change of intermolecular forces due to the addition of the electrolytes.