Markov chain model for the critical micelle concentration of surfactant mixtures

An extension of the Markov chain model (MC) for micellization is proposed, which allows the distribution of the surfactants between the monomer solution and the micelles in a mixed surfactant system to be predicted. The dependence of the critical micelle concentration (cmc) on the composition of the solution is investigated. The equilibrium thermodynamic relation between cmc and micelle composition is discussed. The case of ternary mixtures is analyzed, and theoretical triangular diagram is constructed according to MC. Available experimental data for binary and ternary mixtures agree well with the new MC theory. The dependence of MC parameters on the structure of the surfactants is discussed. Comparison of MC with the simple mixture (“regular solution”) model is presented. The parameters of the MC theory are related to the interaction parameter β _SM of the simple mixture model.