Insights into the behavior of ethylene oxide-1,2-epoxybutane diblock copolymers in water as a function of temperature and the presence of colloidal silica.

Hypothesis: Nonionic surfactants have been widely used for many consumer products and industrial processes, and their applications often involve temperature-cycling across cloud point temperature (T). To explore the behavior of nonionic surfactants across T and when mixed with colloidal silica at a very dilute concentration around 0.1 wt%, a series of 1,2-epoxybutane-capped alcohol ethoxylates (BAEs) with various cloud points is used as a model system.