Micellization of dodecylpyridinium chloride in water-ethanol solutions

Micellar properties of dodecylpyridinium chloride (DPC) were investigated by means of electrical conductometry with emphasis on the influences of cosolvent-water content and temperature. Ethanol was used as a cosolvent. Conductivity measurements gave information about critical micelle concentration and micellar ionization degree of the water-ethanol micellar solutions at different temperatures. In all solvent mixtures, it was observed that the critical micelle concentration of DPC and the degree of the counterion dissociation increase with an increasing concentration of ethanol and increasing temperature. Micellar and thermodynamics data were obtained from the temperature dependence of critical micelle concentrations in various aqueous mixtures of ethanol. In order to explain the effect of the cosolvent, the differences in the Gibbs energies of micellization of DPC between water and binary cosolvent were determined. The standard free energy (ΔG°_mic) of micellization was found to be negative as the concentration of the solvent increases, but it is roughly independent of temperature. Although the enthalpic contribution was found to be larger than the entropic one, in particular at lower temperatures, an entropy-enthalpy compensation effect was observed for all systems. Also, enthalpy (ΔH°_mic) and entropy (ΔS°_mic) of micellization are strongly temperature dependent and decrease with increasing temperature and cosolvent content. The text was submitted by the authors in English.