Micellar Catalysis of Composite Reactions II. The Effect of CTAB Micelles on the Alkaline Fading of Malachite Green

The alkaline fading of malachite green, which is interpreted as parallel first order and second order reactions, has been studied in cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) micellar solution at 25°C using spectrophotometry. A micellar catalytic model is proposed in this paper for constant concentration of hydroxideion. For this model, the first order and the second order rate constants in CTAB micellar phase,k_1m and k_2m have been obtained.

The experimental results indicate that the first order reaction of malachite green cation with water is catalysed by CTAB micelles while the second order reaction of malachite green cation with hydroxide ion is inhibited by CTAB micelles. The first order rate constant in CTAB micellar phase, k_1m , is 210 times of that in the bulk phase, but the second order rate constant in CTAB micellar phase, k_2m , is 0. 166 time of that in the bulk phase. The results are interpreted mostly in relation to the micellar micropolarity and electrostatic interaction. @Keywords: Micelle, Micellar catalysis, Parallel first order and seond order reactions, Malachite green