Effects of the Method of Preparation and Dispersion Media on the Optical Properties and Particle Sizes of Aqueous Dispersions of a Double-Chain Cationic Surfactant.

Abstract

As inferred from visual observations and turbidity measurements, the average radius of the unilamellar vesicles formed in water from the cationic double-chain surfactant didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) varies with the method of preparation, being ∼24 nm after sonication (SS method) and ∼74 nm after extrusion/ultrafiltration (SE method). The radii were larger when the vesicles were produced in 10 mM NaBr, ∼65 nm for the SS method and ∼280 nm for the SE method. The specific turbidity, or turbidity per unit path length divided by the surfactant weight fraction, w, of these vesicular dispersions increased with decreasing w until a constant value was reached at w*, which depends on the preparation method and the dispersion medium. The constant specific turbidities are indicative of single and independent scattering and were used to estimate vesicle radii by solving the specific turbidity equations derived for the Rayleigh-Debye-Gans (RDG) regime. Two turbidity equations were used, one accounting for absorbance errors due to some scattered light reaching the detector and another with no correction. Estimates of the average distances between the vesicles and their corresponding Debye lengths were obtained for evaluating the importance of intervesicle electrostatic interactions, which could lead to dependent scattering at higher weight fractions.