Solute partition study in aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate micellar solutions for some organic reagents and metal chelates

The partition constants (K_d) have been estimated for nitrophenols, thiazolylazo dyestuffs and metal chelate compounds into the sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micellar phase at an ionic strength of 0.10M [(H⁺, Na⁺)Cl^–] and at 20 °C. The equilibrium partition data obtained by batch-wise solution spectrophotometry (equilibrium shift method) agree well with those by the micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC) with the SDS micellar pseudo-stationary phase. The MECC clearly discriminates a very small difference (0.03) in the logK_d values of some metal chelates. The plot of theK_d values with the van der Waals volume of the solute molecules obviously shows the leveling-off of theK_d values over solute size near 110 ml/mol, which seems to be consistent with the results obtained in the Triton X-100 micellar system. This phenomenon arises most probably from the rigidity of the micellar pseudo-phase (a micellar volume-constraint effect) in sharp contrast with true two-phase partitioning such as solvent extraction systems.