Structural, electrostatic and thermodynamic properties of the surface of spherical micelles in solutions of sodium n-alkyl sulfate homologues. I. Structural characteristics

Abstract

Using the aggregation numbers of micelles and the effective sizes of hydrated surfactant ions and counterions of the first coordination sphere, we calculated the average geometric characteristics of the surface layer of ionic spherical micelles in solutions of the sodium n-alkyl sulfate homologues with n_C = 8, 10, 12, and 14 carbon atoms in the molecule; in particular, we established 1) the size of the micelle core; 2) the thickness of the electrical double layer on the surface; 3) the mutual arrangement parameters of hydrophilic and hydrophobic ions; 4) the number of “free” water molecules and showed their dependence on the homologue number and the degree of binding of counterions.