Salt effects on solute exchange in sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles

We describe the influence of sodium chloride on the rate of solute exchange in aqueous SDS micelles for a water-insoluble solute, a pyrene-containing triglyceride 1. The initially prepared solutions contained a small fraction of micelles containing two molecules of 1 and a large excess of empty micelles. These solutions showed a measurable excimer emission (of intensity I(E)) that was stable for days to weeks in the absence of added salt. Following additions of salt, I(E) decayed exponentially (rate constant, k(obs)) accompanied by an increase in pyrene monomer emission. Values of k(obs) increased strongly with ionic strength (k(obs) similar [Na(+)](4)). There was no contribution of the empty micelle concentration beyond its contribution to the sodium ion concentration. We conclude that the solute exchange involves spontaneous fragmentation of the SDS micelles into two submicelles, each bearing a molecule of 1, which then grow back to normal micelles through condensation of SDS monomers. We propose a model for the fragmentation process in which large amplitude surface fluctuations "pinch off" a subunit that becomes a submicelle. These fluctuations bring sulfate headgroups into close proximity. Fluctuations leading to fission become important only in the presence of sufficient counterion concentration to reduce the electrostatic repulsion between neighboring headgroups.