Facilely control the SDS ability to reduce the interfacial tension via the host-guest recognition

Supramolecular chemistry provides a facile and feasible method to construct desired compounds via noncovalent interactions. Based on the host-guest recognition, the surfactant/cyclodextrin (CD) inclusion exhibited the excellent performance in potential application of various fields. The sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)/β-CD inclusion was introduced to chemical enhanced oil recovery. The fabrication of SDS/β-CD inclusion seriously affected the SDS ability to reduce the interfacial tension (IFT) between a model oil (toluene and n -decane, v/v   =   1:1) and water, which may be the key factor to reduce the adsorption loss of SDS molecules via the addition of β-CD molecules. To reactivate the interfacial activity of SDS molecules, we employed the adamantanamine chloride (AD) to the SDS/β-CD inclusion solutions. Interestingly, the electrostatic attraction between AD/β-CD inclusion and SDS molecule dominated the change tendency of IFT values, which was further verified by the systematical investigations on the salinity and temperature effects on the IFT.