ArticleACS ES&T water2026
Hydrophobic Ion Pairing with Cationic Surfactant Modifies Surface Activity and Colloidal Behavior of PFAS.
Article in ACS ES&T water, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are increasingly used to enhance the removal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), particularly short-chain compounds, through hydrophobic ion pairing (HIP). Here, we investigated how HIP with cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) influences the interfacial and colloidal behavior of selected PFAS at low-micromolar concentrations below reported critical micelle concentrations (CMCs) and across varying solution chemistries (pH, ionic strength, and natural organic matter) using surface tension measurements, dynamic light scattering (DLS), ζ-potential analysis, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Relative to the corresponding PFAS-only controls, CTAC (6.66 μM) reduced the surface tension of PFBA, PFBS, and PFOA solutions (3.33 μM each) by 24.64, 45.71, and 70.17%, respectively. PFOS exhibited little additional surface-tension response to CTAC but responded strongly to a shorter-chain QAC (C12), indicating that interfacial behavior depends on fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon chain-length compatibility. Targeted DLS, ζ-potential, and TEM characterization identified detectable bulk coassembly in selected PFAS-QAC systems at concentrations of 3.33-33.30 μM. Electrolyte addition produced PFAS-dependent changes in interfacial behavior, while NOM reduced the interfacial activity of several mixtures. These findings provide mechanistic insight into PFAS-QAC behavior relevant to the development of QAC-assisted PFAS separation processes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.