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THE ROLE OF HYDROPHOBIC INTERACTIONS FOR THE FORMATION OF GAS HYDRATES

It is well known that water molecules at room temperature tend to form ‘iceberg’ structures
around the hydrocarbon chains of surfactant molecules dissolved in water. The entropy reduction
(times the absolute temperature T) associated with the iceberg structure can be considered
as the net driving force for self-assembly. More recently, many investigators measured long-range
attractive forces between hydrophobic surfaces, which are likely to result from structuring of the
water molecules in the vicinity of the hydrophobic surfaces. Similarly, the hydrophobic nature of
most gas hydrate formers may induce ordering of water molecules in the vicinity of dissolved
solutes. In the present work, the surface forces between thiolated gold surfaces have been measured
using an atomic force microscope (AFM) to obtain information on the structure of the thin
films of water between hydrophobic surfaces. The results have been used to develop a new concept
for the formation of gas hydrates.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/2231
Date07 1900
CreatorsYoon, Roe-Hoan, Sum, Amadeu K., Wang, Jialin, Eriksson, Jan C
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
RightsYoon, Roe-Hoan

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