Abstract:In order to develop surfactants with higher surface activity and investigate the influence of hydrophobic chain length on surface activity, polyquaternary ammonium salt cationic surfactants Tz-6CnQC (n=12, 14, 16) containing rigid triazine spacer groups were prepared by a two-step method using N, N-dimethylalkylamine with different alkyl chain lengths (C12, C14, C16), melamine and epichlorohydrin as raw materials. The chemical structure of Tz-6CnQC was characterized using FTIR and 1H NMR. Its surface activity was analyzed through tests on surface tension, conductivity, Krafft point, and rheological properties, and its viscosity reduction, emulsification, and foaming properties were investigated. The results showed that the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of Tz-6C12QC was 0.17 mmol/L, significantly lower than that of dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB, 14.0 mmol/L) with the same hydrophobic alkyl chain length, and CMC showed a regular decreasing trend with the increase of alkyl chains. The foaming performance of Tz-6CnQC increases with the growth of alkyl chains, and the foaming amount is better than that of sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDS) and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS). The foaming amount of Tz-6C16QC solution can reach 150 mL. Tz-6CnQC had good viscosity reduction effect on polyacrylamide (PHIII,Mw=8×106~1×107) solution, and the viscosity reduction efficiency was positively correlated with the length of alkyl chain. Among them, Tz-6C16QC exhibits the best performance under high temperature (45 ℃) and high concentration (1 mmol/L) conditions, and the Tz-6C16QC/PHIII water-soluble solution reduces to 4.83 Pa·s. The emulsification performance showed concentration dependence. At low concentration (≤ 1 mmol/L), the emulsification performance increases significantly with the increase of alkyl chain, and at high concentration (3-30 mmol/L), it decreases with the increase of alkyl chain. The emulsification performance was significantly enhanced with the growth of alkyl chain at low concentration (≤1 mmol/L), and the growth of chain length at high concentration (3~30 mmol/L) led to the decrease of emulsification performance on the contrary, in which the separation time of Tz-6C12QC solution at 30 mmol/L (1527 min).