technological disciplines. Here we should mention emulsion The aim of this work was to investigate the electrophoretic flotation, oil agglomeration, emulsification, and cleaning of properties of emulsion droplets of aliphatic hydrocarbons conwaste waters from dispersed oil substances.
taining C 6 to C 16 carbon atoms in hydrocarbon chains. As it was
The investigations of the electrical double layer in the observed experimentally, the emulsion droplets of hydrocarbons aqueous solution-oil system and, especially, the investiga-C 9 to C 16 revealed a completely different course of changes of the tions of electrokinetics of droplets of apolar surfactants in z potential due to pH than the n-alkanes of shorter hydrocarbon the aqueous solutions can bring numerous practical profits.
chains (C 6 to C 8 ). They revealed a negative value of the z poten-
When the z potential as such is known, it is often of tial, lower by almost twice. The z potentials of emulsion droplets of limited value. On the other hand, however, the change of the n-alkanes, from n-nonane to n-hexadecane, do not practically depend on the length of the hydrocarbon chain but, first of all, on the z potential with the change of the conditions in the the pH of aqueous solutions. The cause of the origin of the negative solution constitutes significant information about the condizeta potential of n-alkane droplets lies in the selective adsorption tion of the interface which determines the life of emulsion of 0 OH ions, causing the gathering of the excessive negative charge droplets in the aqueous solution. This is the subject matter at the oil-water interface. As it was assumed, the stability of oilof this work.
in-water emulsion droplets in the solution, i.e., the time of collection of liquid hydrocarbons C 6 H 28 on the surface of aqueous solu-
2. SUBJECT AND METHODS OF INVESTIGATIONS tions, is the criterion of the life of emulsion droplets of n-alkanes. The observations indicate a close correlation between the emulsion
The investigations of electrokinetics of oil droplets in wadroplets stability of the tested aliphatic hydrocarbons in water and ter were performed on apolar substances, well-characterized the value changes of the z potential.