Mixtures of hydrogenated and fluorinated lactobionamide surfactants with cationic surfactants: study of hydrogenated and fluorinated chains miscibility through potentiometric techniques

The work reported herein deals with the aqueous behavior of hydrocarbon and/or fluorocarbon ionic and nonionic surfactants mixtures. These mixtures were studied using potentiometric techniques in NaBr (0.1 mol L-1) aqueous solution as well as in pure water. Mixed micelles were formed from a cationic surfactant (dodecyl or tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide respectively called DTABr or TTABr) and neutral lactobionamide surfactants bearing a hydrogenated dodecyl chain (H12Lac) or a fluorinated chain (CF3-(CF2)5-(CH2)2- or CF3-(CF2)7-(CH2)2-). We showed that concentrations of ionic and nonionic surfactants in the monomeric form as well as the composition of the mixed micelles can be specified thanks to a potentiometric technique. The complete characterization does not request any model of micellization a priori. The activities of the micellar phase constituents, as well as the free enthalpies of mixing, were calculated. The subsequent interpretation only relies on the experimental characterization. Comparison of the behaviors of the various systems with a model derived from the regular solution theory reveals the predominant part of electrostatic interactions in the micellization phenomenon. It also appears that the energy of interaction between hydrogenated and fluorinated chains is unfavorable to mixing and is of much lower magnitude than the electric charges interactions.