Micellization and micellar growth of alkanediyl-α,ω-bis(dimethyldodecylammonium bromide) surfactants in the presence of medium-chain linear alcohols

Micellization and micellar growth of cationic dimeric surfactants of the alkanedyil-α,ω-bis(dimethyldodecylammonium) bromide type, 12-s-12,2Br− (s = 3, 4, 6), in the presence of various amounts of 1-butanol, 1-pentanol, and 1-hexanol have been investigated. The influence of the nature and concentration of alcohol on the cmc, on the micellar ionization degree, on the average micellar aggregation number, and on the polarity of the micellar interfacial region was investigated by using conductivity and fluorescence measurements. Subsequently, effects of alcohol addition on the surfactant concentration range where sphere to rod transitions occur were examined and information about changes in the micropolarity and in the microviscosity accompanying the morphological transition was obtained. The experimental results were explained by considering the variations in the different contributions to the Gibbs energy of micellization caused by the presence of alcohols. The study of the reaction methyl naphthalene-2-sulfonate + Br− in some water–alcohol 12-6-12,2Br− micellar solutions provided information about the characteristics of the dimeric micelles as microreactors and show the complexity of the microheterogeneous systems studied.

Graphical abstractIn this work, micellization and micellar growth of alkanediyl-α,-ω-bis(dimethyldodecylammonium bromide) surfactants in the presence of various amounts of 1-butanol, 1-pentanol and 1-hexanol have been investigated.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (173 K)Download as PowerPoint slide