Regulation of charged reverse micelles on particle charging in nonpolar media.

By considering the mechanism of preferential adsorption, we systemically investigated the charging behavior of spherical particles in nonpolar media by the regulation of charged inverse micelles. Using the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation, we simulated the effects of micelle concentrations, particle concentrations, and particle sizes on the surface potential of spheres at the thermodynamic equilibrium of the system. As a result, we found two different micelle concentration-dependent regions for the surface potential of spheres which can be explained in terms of the mechanism of preferential adsorption and the electrostatic properties of charged reverse micelles between the particle surface and the double layer. Additionally, similar results were observed in an experiment for studying zeta potential of colloidal particles dispersed in AOT (sodium di-2-ethylhexyl sulfosuccinate)-dodecane solution.