Recombination statistics of nonionic surfactant micelles at equilibrium

Abstract

We conduct dissipative particle dynamics simulations of nonionic surfactant solutions to investigate the statistical properties of micellar recombination. We categorize the recombination events into self-recombination, where two micelles created by scission join together, and non-self-recombination. We find that these two recombination events exhibit distinct statistical properties. The probability density function of the recombination time for self-recombination follows a power law, and we show that the mean squared displacement of the surfactants determines the exponent of the power law. In contrast, the survival function for non-self-recombination is exponential, which is consistent with the mean-field model. For non-self-recombination, we evaluate the mean recombination time for various aggregation numbers, temperatures, and surfactant volume fractions. We find a scaling law describing the mean recombination time of the micelles at equilibrium.