Electrokinetic and thermodynamic analysis of the adsorption process of N-cetylpyridinium chloride on polyester fabric

An electrokinetic and thermodynamic analysis of the adsorption process of N-cetylpyridinium chloride on polyester fabric is described in the present work. The electrokinetic study was performed by means of electrophoretic mobility measurements of the polyester-surfactant system. The most significant result is the increase in electrokientic potential, zeta, toward more positive values as the surfactant concentration in the dispersion medium is raised. Given the molecular structure of N-cetylpyridinium chloride (N-CP-Cl), which contains a pyridinium group, positively charged, it is feasible that such increse in \zeta\ is due to the electrostatic attraction between the carboxyl groups of polyester, ionized at pH 8.5, and the pyridinium group of the surfactant. The uptake of N-CP-Cl by the fiber is experimentally determined at four temperatures: the strong increse in the amount of the surfactant incorporated onto the fiber as the initial concentration of N-CP-Cl is larger shows that the electrostatic attraction between the fiber and the surfactant is the main mechanism of the adsorption of the surfactant onto the fiber. The obtained data on the kinetics and thermodynamics of adsorption of N-cetylpyridinium chloride onto the polyester, standard free energy, enthalpy, and entropy related to the process of adsorption are in accordance with our hypothesis on the mechanisms of adsorption. From a different point of view, the efficient coverage of polyester by N-CP-Cl is also demonstrated by the changes experienced by the surface free energy of polyester upon treatment with N-CP-Cl. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).