Affiliation:
1. Department of Chemistry Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT) Surat Gujarat India
2. Atmanand Saraswati Science College Surat Gujarat India
3. Solid State Physics Division Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Mumbai India
4. Biomacromolecular Systems and Processes, Institute of Biological Information Processing Forschungszentrum Julich Julich Germany
5. Department of Chemistry Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU) Surat Gujarat India
Abstract
AbstractThe micellization behavior of conventional cationic surfactant: tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB), and Gemini surfactant (GS): N,N′‐ditetradecyl‐N,N,N′,N′‐tetramethyl‐N,N′‐ethanediyl‐diammonium dibromide (14‐2‐14) in water and water‐trifluoroethanol (TFE) solvent mixture has been examined using tensiometric and small‐angle neutron scattering (SANS) techniques. Critical micelle concentration (CMC), and various interfacial parameters such as surface tension at CMC (γCMC), surface pressure at CMC (πCMC), maximum surface excess concentration (Γmax), and minimum area occupied by the head group (Amin) were evaluated for our examined systems at 303.15 K. It was observed that with the increase in TFE concentration, the CMC of the tested cationic surfactants decreased, thereby favoring the micellization in the presence of the surface‐active TFE. Furthermore, the geometry and aggregation number (Nagg) of surfactant micelles were inferred using SANS that revealed the decrease in micelle size of cationic surfactants. Additionally, the computational simulation study provided an insight into the molecular interactions in the examined system that validated our experimental findings.