A three-component light-scattering theory for surfactant solutions containing two different counterions

Abstract

The general fluctuation theory of light scattering by multicomponent systems is applied to aqueous solutions containing a surfactant and an added salt. The treatment embraces polyvalent surfactant, co- and counterions. Two procedures, which utilize four micellar models when two different counterions are present, are described for estimating micellar aggregation numbers and charges. In cases examined, the simpler slope-intercept approach gave results which compared favorably with those rendered by the intrinsically more accurate, but cumbersome, trial-and-error (brute-force) method.