Effects of glycols on the thermodynamic and micellar properties of TTAB in water

In this work the effects of glycol addition on the TTAB micellization, on the structure of TTAB micelles and on their characteristics as reaction media have been investigated. Aggregation of tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide, TTAB, in mixed solvent systems containing ethylene glycol, EG, 1,2-propylene glycol, 1,2-PROP, 1,3-propylene glycol, 1,3-PROP, and tetraethylene glycol, TEG, has been investigated by employing conductivity and fluorescence methods. Gibbs energies of micellization were determined in order to evaluate the effects of the co-solvent on the aggregation process. Information about the influence of the organic solvent on the surfactant adsorption at the air-solution interface, on the micellar size and on the polarity of the micellar interfacial region was obtained by means of surface tension and fluorescence measurements. The study of the reaction methyl naphthalene-2-sulfonate + Br - in the water–glycol TTAB micellar solutions provided information about the characteristics of TTAB micelles as microreactors in the water–solvent binary mixtures.