Determination of the critical micelle concentration by absorbance and fluorescence techniques using fluorescein probe

Abstract

We reported a unique and sensitive probe (fluorescein) for determination the critical micelle concentration(CMC) of ionic surfactants based on both fluorescence and absorbance properties of probe in micellar solution. We found that the spectral properties (fluorescence and absorbance) of fluorescein are affected by different types of surfactants. For this purpose spectrophotometric technique using fluorescein as probe to determine the critical micelle concentration of cationic, anionic and zwitterionic surfactants. The critical micelle concentrations of surfactants were determined from the sigmoidal shaped plots or inflection points. The obtained CMC values were in good agreement with the values obtained with conductivity measurements or with literature values.