Growth control of nonionic reverse micelles by surfactant and solvent molecular architecture and water addition

This paper describes a facile route to the shape, size, and structure control of reversed micelles by surfactant and solvent molecular architecture and water addition. Nonionic reverse micellar size is found to increase with increase in hydrophilic headgroup size of surfactant, whose scheme is understood in terms of decrease in the critical packing parameter (cpp). On the other hand, an opposite trend is observed with increase in lipophilicity of the surfactant. This is caused by the repulsive excluded volume interactions, which increases with the volume of lipophilic moiety of surfactant; as a result, the micelle interface tends to become more curved and micelles shrink. Solvent molecular structure has played a crucial role; increasing hydrocarbon chain length of alkanes favored one dimensional micellar growth. We note that long chain oil has a poor penetration tendency to lipophilic tail of surfactant and decreases the cpp. Solvent polarity is also crucial; globular micelles are formed in short chain oil cyclohexane. We note that decreasing chain length of oil mimic the decrease in the headgroup size of surfactant; rod-to-sphere type transition in the micellar structure. Addition of trace water favors micellar growth; maximum dimension and micellar cross section increases with increase in water concentration. The sizes of the water incorporated reverse micelles (or w/o microemulsion) are much bigger than the empty micelles. Micellar structure was confirmed by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and supported by rheology.