The effect of counterions on the surface adsorption and micelle formation in mixed surfactant systems of dodecyl sulfates

 The surface tension of the aqueous solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and tetramethylammonium dodecyl sulfate (TMADS) was measured as a function of total molality of the surfactants at fixed composition of TMADS at 298.15 K under atmospheric pressure. The phase diagrams of adsorption and of micelle formation, the activity coefficients, and the excess Gibbs energy were calculated to estimate the deviation from the ideal mixing quantitatively. The preferential adsorption and the micelle formation for TMA⁺ to Na⁺ is attributable to some extent to the hydrophobicity of the methyl groups of TMA⁺. The composition of TMA⁺ in the micelle is larger than that in the adsorbed film at equilibrium. That is, a larger hydrated counterion is more likely to exist in the micelle than in the adsorbed film owing to geometrical benefit. The negative values of the excess Gibbs energy of the adsorbed film and of the micelle arise from the positive ones of the excess entropy greater than that of excess enthalpy. The counterions of very similar size are mixed ideally in the micelle and the size effect appears sensitively in the adsorbed film. Received: 23 May 2001 Accepted: 16 July 2001