Nonideal mixed micelles of Gemini surfactant homologues and their application as templates for mesoporous material MCM-48

The micellization properties of aqueous solutions of the mixed Gemini surfactant homologues GEM16-6-16 and GEM16-12-16 with various compositions were investigated. The measured critical micelle concentration (CMC) deviated significantly from the ideal mixing model. Good agreement was found with a nonideal mixing model, the Margules model, which has two optimal parameters, A12=-3.611 and A21=-6.318. It was shown that the properties of mixed micelles were not sensitive to the compositions, and most of the GEM16-12-16 molecules were aggregated into the micelles. Dynamic laser light-scattering measurements revealed that the mixed micelles had almost the same size and similar zeta potential. When the mixed micelles were used as templates, a series of highly ordered cubic MCM-48 mesoporous materials, characterized by XRD and TEM, were produced through self-assembly. The N2 adsorption-desorption measurements suggested that the pores of these materials had similar average diameters of 2.2-2.5 nm. This further demonstrated the nonideal behavior of the homologue mixture.