Conductivity of micellar solutions of ionic surfactants and surface conductivity of micelles

Within the effective medium model, a method is proposed for determining the surface conductivity of micelles. The known experimental data on the conductivity of aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate micellar solutions are analyzed employing the developed approach. Specific surface conductivity λ_s of micelles is shown to be 10⁻⁸Ω⁻¹. The high values of λ_s are indicative of a noticeable contribution of the dense part of the electrical double layer, which is comparable with the contribution of its diffuse part, to the micellar solution conductivity. This estimate is strongly dependent on the initial information obtained in different studies. The marked influence of the micelle surface conductivity on the effective conductivity of micellar solutions allows one to put the question of the correctness of the method commonly used to determine the degree of counterion binding from the slopes of the dependences of the solution conductivity on the overall surfactant concentrations in the premicellar and micellar regions.