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Micellization in Model Surfactant Systems

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M. Antonio Floriano^† and Eugenio Caponetti

Dipartimento di Chimica Fisica, Università di Palermo, Via Archirafi 26, 90123 Palermo, Italy

Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos*

Institute for Physical Science and Technology and Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-2431

Langmuir, 1999, 15 (9), pp 3143–3151

DOI: 10.1021/la9810206

Publication Date (Web): April 10, 1999

Section:

Surface Chemistry and Colloids

Abstract

Formation of micelles in model lattice surfactant systems was studied by a novel methodology based on grand-canonical Monte Carlo simulations. The methodology involves combining free-energy information from a series of simulations in small systems by histogram reweighting. The solution osmotic pressure as a function of overall volume fraction of surfactant shows a sharp break at the critical micelle concentration (cmc) at sufficiently low temperatures. Studies in larger systems at appropriate values of the surfactant chemical potential are used to investigate the size distribution of micellar aggregates. The methodology allows for a clear distiction between micellization and macroscopic phase separation. Two symmetric diblock surfactants have been considered in the present work. The cmc was found to increase with increasing temperature. The enthalpy change on micellization was determined to be proportional to the chain length of the surfactant. The mean micelle aggregation numbers were found to decrease at higher temperatures and increase with overall surfactant volume fraction for temperatures near the upper limit for micellar aggregation. These observations indicate that simple geometric packing concepts for micelle formation do not adequately describe temperature and composition effects in nonionic surfactant solutions.

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This article has been cited by 41 ACS Journal articles (5 most recent appear below).

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Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Sphere to Rod Transition in Surfactant Micelles
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Accurate Critical Micelle Concentrations from a Microscopic Surfactant Model
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Simulations of Micellization of Sodium Hexyl Sulfate
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Implicit-Solvent Models for Micellization: Nonionic Surfactants and Temperature-Dependent Properties
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The Journal of Physical Chemistry B2011 115 (5), 990-1001
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  We have investigated micellization properties of surfactants using a recently developed implicit-solvent model and grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations. The original model had been parametrized for ionic surfactants at a single temperature; it is ...
  Abstract | Full Text HTML | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links