Micelle dissociation kinetics study by dynamic surface tension of micellar solutions

The dynamic surface of sodium tetradecylsulphate and sodium bexadecylsulphate solutions in water and also in Triton X-100 solutions was measured by the maximum bubble-pressure method, using modern computerized instrumentation, for a wide range of surface lifetimes (from 0.001 to 10 s), temperatures (from 30 to 80°C) and surfactant concentrations (from 1 to 200 CMC). On the basis of a previously suggested adsorption kinetics theory for micellar solutions of ionogenic surfactants (V.B. Fainerman, Colloids Surfaces, 62 (1992) 333) a method was developed for the calculation of the micellar dissociation rate constant k. For the surfactants studied, k increases with increasing concentration. Moreover, for ionic surfactants the dependence of k on concentration (C) becomes more striking for C> (10–30) CMC. This can be explained by a micelle shape transition and by a strengthening of the intermolecular repulsion in micelles. In solutions of the ionic surfactants the constant k increasing with increasing temperature, whereas in Triton X-100 solutions a temperature dependence is absent. This phenomenon is associated with the different nature of the molecular interactions for ionogenic and non-ionogenic surfactants in micelles. The k values, obtained from results of dynamic surface tension measurements, are in satisfactory agreement with the results of a study of the relaxation of micellar solutions published previously.