The micelle formation of sodium and potassium (tripentylmethyl)benzenesulfonate in n-heptane

Size and shape of micelles of Na and K salts of (tripentylmethyl)benzenesulfonic acid in n-heptane were determined from light scattering and sedimentation. These systems behave quite differently from most aqueous micellar systems, which entails special problems in the interpretation of the experimental results. The micelle size depends strongly upon soap concentration and temperature and upon the nature of the cation.

The behavior of the potassium sulfonate micelles can be reasonably described in terms of a model theory, which theory, however, does not hold for the sodium soap.