Study of the reaction methyl 4‐nitrobenzene‐sulfonate + Cl− in mixed hexadecyltrimethyl‐ammonium chloride‐triton X‐100 micellar solutions

The reaction methyl 4‐nitrobenzenesulfonate + Cl^? was studied in hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) in the absence and presence of 0.1 M NaCl, as well as in mixed CTAC/Triton X‐100 (polyoxyethylene(9.5)octylphenyl ether) aqueous micellar solutions with CTAC molar fractions of 0.9, 0.8, 0.7, and 0.6. Conductivity measurements were used to obtain critical micellar concentrations and micellar ionization degrees of the various micellar reaction media. From these data, thermodynamic information on the cationic/nonionic mixed micellar solutions was obtained. Micellar effects on the observed rate constant were explained by pseudophase kinetic models. The estimated second‐order rate constants in the micellar pseudophase of the different micellar reaction media showed that pure CTAC and mixed CTAC/Triton X‐100 micelles, at the high cationic surfactant molar fractions studied, provide reaction sites of similar characteristics at the interfacial region. This was in agreement with previous structural studies carried out on mixed CTAC/Triton X‐100 micellar solutions. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 35: 45–51, 2003