Surfactant Association: Recent Theoretical and Experimental Developments

A theoretical model describing the association of ionic surfactants into rod-shaped micelles is combined with an approximate formula for the viscosity increase induced by rod-shaped aggregates. It is shown that most of the thermodynamic parameters of the association model can be obtained from viscosity measurements. The approach is applied to micellar solutions of hexadecylpyridinium salts. The pronounced effect of counter-ion concentration on the growth of rod-shaped micelles can be attributed to a slightly higher degree of counter-ion association in the cylindrical part than in the end portions. An attempt is made to explain the finding that the degree of counter-ion association is virtua…