Effects of Short‐Chain Alcohol on the Micellization of Gemini Surfactant C16‐6‐16 · 2Br in Aqueous Solution

The effects of ethanol, n‐butanol, and n‐hexanol on the micellization of cationic Gemini surfactant C16‐6‐16 · 2Br have been investigated using conductance and steady fluorescence measurements. The results show that the critical micelle concentration (CMC) increases with the addition of ethanol, but decreases with n‐butano1 or n‐hexanol. With the addition of the above alcohols, both the micelle ionization degree and the mole fraction of alcohol in the micelle increase, however, the micelle aggregation number decreases at a fixed concentration of surfactant. When given a special concentration of alcohol, the micelle aggregation number increases as the increase of the surfactant concentration.

Keywords:

• Gemini surfactant
• short‐chain alcohol
• micellization

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Projects No. 20236010, 20476025, 20490200) the Doctoral Research Foundation sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China (Project No. 20050251004), Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission of China (No. 05DJ14002) and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission of China.