Hydrolysis of bis(4-nitrophenyl) ethyl phosphate in micellar solutions of dicationic surfactants

The effect of dicationic surfactants on the hydrolysis of bis(4-nitrophenyl) ethyl phosphate in a borate buffer is studied. The presence of long-chain surfactants results in a significant (up to 50-fold) increase in the observed rate constant (k _obs) of the process. The catalytic effect of micelles increases with increasing alkyl chain length due to the strengthening of binding of the reagents by micelles. The presence of two cationic centers in the surfactant molecule enhances the catalytic properties of micelles. The dependence ofk _obs of hydrolysis of the substrate on the borate buffer concentration is studied. Alkaline hydrolysis is more sensitive to the added surfactant than the reaction involving borate ions.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 9, pp. 1576–1580, September, 1994.