The size of sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles in the presence ofn-alcohols as determined by fluorescence quenching measurements

Abstract

The steady-state fluorescence quenching technique was used to investigate the effect of the presence of a series of alcohol homologues of mid-sized straight chain on the size of mixed micelles of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). We used pyrene at concentration of ca. 10⁻⁶M, where only its monomer exhibits any fluorescence, as fluorescent probe, and cetylpiridinium chloride at concentrations in the range (1–9)×10⁻⁵ M as quencher. This technique allows one to determine the micellar aggregation number. The number of alcohol molecules per micelle was calculated from reported values for the micelle-water partition coefficient. On the assumption of spherical micelles, their hydrophobic radii was then calculated. The hypothesis that micelle size is determined by the available surface area per charged headgroup is discussed in the light of the results obtained.