Effect of self-assembled surfactant structures on ion transport across the liquid|liquid interface

In this paper, the effect of a coadsorbed polyanion–cationic surfactant system on the transport of tetraethylammonium ion across the water|1,2-dichloroethane interface is studied. It is shown that the change in double-layer structure due to the presence of adsorbed or coadsorbed surfactant can explain the experimental observations, thus concluding that no other effects on ion transfer (e.g., steric hindrance) are relevant under these experimental conditions. The implications of these results are discussed. Keywords: ITIES, Ion transfer, Self-assembled monolayers, Surfactants, Double-layer effects