Interactions in binary mixed systems involving a sugar-based surfactant and different n-alkyltrimethylammonium bromides

In this paper, mixtures of sugar-based decanoyl-N-methylglucamide with three different n-alkyltrimethylammonium bromides (n=12 (DTAB), 14 (TTAB), and 16 (CTAB)) have been studied using conductance and fluorescence spectroscopic techniques. The critical micelle concentration values of pure and mixed systems were determined by both the conductance and the pyrene 1:3 ratio methods. The experimental results were interpreted using thermodynamic mixing approaches based on the pseudophase separation model. These analyses allowed us to determine the interaction parameters and the composition of the mixed micelles through the whole composition range. Since all the ionic surfactants used in this study have the same headgroup, the differences observed between the three mixed systems were attributed to the lengths of their hydrocarbon chains. It was established that, besides interactions of electrostatic character, additional short-range interactions must be considered. By using the static quenching method, the mean micellar aggregation numbers of mixed micelles were obtained. In the cases of the mixed systems with DTAB and TTAB it was observed that the aggregation number is initially reduced with the participation of the ionic component, remaining almost constant and close to the aggregation number of the pure ionic micelle. However, in the systems involving CTAB it is observed that the size of micelles initially increases and then decreases slightly for mixtures with a high content of the ionic component. The hydrophobic index pyrene 1:3 ratio was used to examine possible changes in the micellar micropolarity; however, no definitive conclusions could be derived from these experiments. In order to study the evolution of the local viscosity of the mixed micelles upon addition of the ionic surfactant, fluorescence polarization measurements were carried out with two different probes, fluorescein and coumarin 6. It was found that the participation of the ionic component in the mixed micelle induces the formation of less ordered structure than that of pure nonionic micelles. An attempt was made to correlate these effects with the interaction parameters obtained from the theoretical mixing model and, consequently, with the alkyl chain length of the ionic components.