The effect of added alcohols on the micellization process of sodium 8-phenyloctanoate

1 H NMR chemical shifts were examined for mixtures of sodium 8-phenyloctanoate (Na-ω-PhOct) in deuterated aqueous solutions of varying compositions of ethoxylated alcohols. In addition, diffusion-oriented spectroscopy experiments (DOSY) were performed on selected compositions to obtain the diffusion coefficients of the ethoxylated alcohols in the mixed micelles. As expected, the alcohol/surfactant systems exhibit behavior typical to that of an anionic surfactant/alcohol system, in that the critical micellar concentrations and aggregation numbers decrease with increasing alcohol concentration in the mixed solvent. The 1 H NMR aromatic solute induced shifts (ASIS effects) on the alcohol and surfactant protons give significant information on the locations of the alcohol groups in the mixed micelle. All these results are interpreted in terms of the structure of the alcohol/surfactant systems as a function of their composition.