Synergistic effects in mixtures of oppositely charged surfactants as calculated from the Poisson-Boltzmann theory: a comparison between theoretical predictions and experiments

Critical micelle concentrations in mixtures of an anionic surfactant and a cationic amphiphilic drug have been investigated using a model-independent procedure to quantify observed synergistic effects. Experimental results were compared with a theory based on the Poisson-Boltzmann mean field approximation of a charged interface with a diffuse layer of counterions. Explicit expressions for the activity coefficients from which the critical micelle concentration can be calculated and quantitatively predicted have been derived and excellent agreement between experimental data and theory was obtained. As a result, we demonstrate that it is possible to rationalize and predict the magnitude of synergism in mixtures of oppositely charged surfactants in the presence of added salt.