A new method for simultaneous estimation of micellization parameters from conductometric data

Chemistry. 2004 Oct 11;10(20):5000-7. doi: 10.1002/chem.200400415.

Abstract

A simple method for determination of the counterion binding parameter (alpha) and aggregation number (N) from conductivity data is proposed. The method is based on fitting the values of the first derivative of conductivity (kappa) versus total surfactant concentration (c(t)) function according to the equation derived from the mass action model (MAM) by using different conductivity models. Sodium dodecylsulphate (SDS) and dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) were chosen for validation of the proposed method. It was shown that the method gives a fairly accurate values for micellisation parameters of SDS (N=51-64, alpha=0.74-0.75) and DTAB (N=56-62, alpha=0.77-0.79), both in good agreement with the literature data. In addition, application of the proposed method does not require the value of the critical micelle concentration (cmc).