Specific ion effects on the interfacial tension of water/hydrocarbon systems

Specific ion effects - also known as Hofmeister effects - are ubiquitous in several areas of chemistry, chemical engineering and biology. The interfacial tension corresponds to the energy per unit of area at the interface. Thus, the presence of different salts in different concentrations changes the interfacial tension of a system containing an aqueous phase. This effect can be explained based on the concentration profile of different ions in the vicinity of the interface. In order to study this effect we measured the surface tension of aqueous electrolyte solutions and the interfacial tension...