Mixed micelles containing sodium oleate: the effect of the chain length and the polar head group.

We have investigated the mixing behavior of binary mixtures of the alkylglucosides (CnG) octyl beta-D-glucoside and decyl D-glucoside in combination with sodium oleate (NaOl), and the amine oxide surfactants (AO) N,N-dimethyldodecylamine oxide, N,N-bis (2-hydroxyethyl)dodecylamine oxide, and 3-lauramidopropyl-N,N-dimethylamine oxide in combination with NaOl. From the equilibrium surface tension measurements, the critical micelle concentration (cmc) data were obtained as functions of the composition. Values of the cmc were analyzed according to both the regular solution model developed by Rubingh for mixed micelles and Maeda's formulation for ionic/nonionic mixed micelles. Two interaction parameters, beta and B1, were estimated from the regular solution model and Maeda's formulation, respectively. For NaOl/CnG mixed systems, a decrease in the hydrocarbon chain length of CnG resulted in a stronger interaction with NaOl from both beta and B1 values. For NaOl/AO mixed systems, the bulkiness of a polar head group of AO surfactants influenced the interaction between NaOl and AO. The dynamic surface tension measurements show that all surface tension values of surfactant solutions examined decreased with the time. We found that the time dependence of surface tension values for NaOl mixed systems was greatly influenced by the presence of NaOl rather than the other component.