Abstract
Surfactants are amphiphilic compounds that are widely used in various technological fields and biological systems. In many of these applications, mixtures of amphiphiles in organic solvents are employed for better performance The work aims at establishing the extent of ideality or otherwise in the mixed micelles of n-alkyl trimethylammonium bromide, (n = 14 and 16 for TTABr and CTABr respectively), in water (AQ) and water-monoethanolamine (AQ-MEA) at different mole fractions (0.1 to 0.6) and temperatures by Conductance measurement.: The values of the critical micelle concentration (Cmx) obtained in AQ, and AQ-MEA were lower than that obtained assuming an ideal mixing system. Substantial deviation from ideality was observed in the presence of AQ-MEA at all temperatures, suggestive of more favourable association of the surfactants in MEA solvent. The composition (χ<sub>1</sub>) of the mixed micelles obtained in the context of Rubingh’s model showed that the micelles of CTABr were dominant, and the values of the interaction parameters (β<sub>mx</sub>) were negative in AQ and AQ-MEA media with more synergistic interaction in the latter case at 0.1:0.9 mole fraction ratio at a particular temperature. The values of the activity coefficients (f<sub>TTABr</sub>, f<sub>CTABr</sub>) were below unity, and the evaluation of the energetics of micellization showed that the process was spontaneous and feasible.
Highlights
The special interest in the study of surfactants originates from their technological and biological importance which revolve around the surface tension lowering effect. [1, 2]
The unique properties of cationic surfactants over other class of self-assembly [4] make them suitable in biological applications as solubilizing agents for organic compounds, and hydrophobic drugs, as disinfectants, and cleaning agents, the positive charge on the surfaceactive segment of the molecule is unaffected by the pH of the solution. [5,6,7]
This work is aimed at investigating the influence of co-solvent on the mixed micelles of cationic surfactants having the same hydrophilic but different tail groups, with a view to having a mixed micelle that will serve as a better adjuvant in herbicides, detergency formulation, and textile-dyeing
Summary
The special interest in the study of surfactants originates from their technological and biological importance which revolve around the surface tension lowering (water) effect. [1, 2]. The unique properties of cationic surfactants over other class of self-assembly [4] make them suitable in biological applications as solubilizing agents for organic compounds, and hydrophobic drugs, as disinfectants, and cleaning agents, the positive charge on the surfaceactive segment of the molecule is unaffected by the pH of the solution. As in the case of monomeric surfactants, the formation of micelles of two or more surfactants occur suddenly over a narrow range of concentration [1] due to changes in the physicochemical properties of the system [8]. A balance of these two major forces leads to micelle or mixed micelle formation as in the case of monomeric and mixed surfactants respectively [10,11,12]
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