Sizes and Structures of Micelles of Cationic Octadecyl Trimethyl Ammonium Chloride and Anionic Ammonium Dodecyl Sulfate Surfactants in Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

The sizes and structures of micelles formed in aqueous solutions of cationic octadecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (OTAC) and anionic ammonium dodecyl sulfate (ADS) surfactants were investigated using smallangle neutron scattering (SANS), self-diffusion coefficients by pulsed-gradient spin-echo (PGSE) NMR, and dynamic light scattering (DLS) methods. SANS and DLS data indicate that their structures are spherical at concentrations as high as 300 mM. As the total surfactant concentration increases, the peaks of SANS spectra shift to higher scattering vector and become sharper, indicating that the intermicellar distance decreases and its distribution becomes narrower. This is due to more compact packing of surfactant molecules at high concentrations. The intermicellar distance of around 100 <TEX>${\AA}$</TEX> above 200 mM corresponds approximately to the diameter of one micelle. The sizes of spherical micelles are 61 <TEX>${\AA}$</TEX> and 41 <TEX>${\AA}$</TEX> for 9 mM OTAC and 10 mM ADS, respectively. Also the self-diffusion coefficients by PGSE-NMR yield the apparent sizes 96 <TEX>${\AA}$</TEX> and 31 <TEX>${\AA}$</TEX> for micelles of 1 mM OTAC and 10 mM ADS, respectively. For ADS solutions of high concentrations (100-300 mM), DLS data show that the micelle size remains constant at <TEX>$25{\pm}2{\AA}$</TEX>. This indicates that the transition in micellar shape does not take place up to 300 mM, which is consistent with the SANS results.