Reactivity of N-benzoyl-N-phenylhydroxylamine in cationic micellar media for the cleavage of carboxylate and phosphate esters

•Hydrolysis of carboxylate and phosphate esters with α-nucleophiles have been investigated.•Gemini surfactants have shown rapid acceleration for the hydrolytic cleavage of esters than other surfactants.•The reactivity of micellar mediated reactions was explained by psuedophase model.

The rate enhancement for the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl acetate (PNPA) and p-nitrophenyl diphenyl phosphate (PNPDPP) by N-benzoyl-N-phenylhydroxylamine (PBHA) was obtained in the presence of gemini i.e. decanediyl-1, 10-bis (cetyldimethylammonium bromide) (C16-10-C16, 2Br−) and monomeric surfactants viz. cetyldiethylethanolammonium bromide (CDEEAB), cetyldimethylethanolammonium bromide (CDMEAB), cetyl-p-toluene-sulfonate (CPTS), and cetylpyridinium bromide (CPB). The physicochemical properties of gemini and monomeric surfactants have also been investigated by conductivity and surface tension measurements. All the kinetic data has been treated by simple pseudophase model.