A thermodynamic and photophysical study of the effects of thiourea on the micellar properties of aqueous sodium dodecyl sulphate solution

The micellar properties of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) in aqueous thiourea solutions were investigated with the aim of studying the effect of thiourea on these properties. The critical micelle concentrations (cmc) and the degree of dissociation of the micelle were determined by the conductometric method over the temperature range 298–323 K for different concentrations of thiourea. The cmc values of the surfactant in the presence of thiourea were obtained by following the change in the relative intensities of vibrational fine structure of the pyrene fluorescence spectra. The aggregation numbers were determined by employing the static quenching fluorescence method. The cmc values in the presence of varying electrolyte concentrations (NaCl) were obtained with 8-anilinonaphthalene 1-sulphonate (ANS) as a fluorescence probe, and from these values the degree of dissociation was calculated. The mass action model was applied in the present study to obtain various thermodynamic parameters of micellization. All these properties were compared with the micellar properties of an aqueous urea/SDS system, and it was found that thiourea is a better demicellization agent.