Additional attraction between surfactant-coated surfaces

A simple model that shows an additional attraction between Solvated surfactant-coated systems is developed. The model simply calculates the van der Waals attraction between the solvated surfactant layers. This attraction was previously neglected as it was expected to have a small energetic contribution. This is indeed the case; however, despite the small energetic contribution the force is large. In other words, although the expression that we get is small in energy, it is large in force. This is particularly important for surface force balance measurements, where using the developed expression, some apparent discrepancies between measured and theoretical values may now have a possible explanation, and especially those associated with surfactant-coated surfaces. We apply the new expression to a given system, and compare with the experimental results. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).