CONTENTS 1. Introduction 4569 2. Background 4569 2.1. Aqueous Reverse Micelles 4569 2.2. Definition of Aqueous and Nonaqueous Reverse Micelles 4572 3. Characterization of Reverse Micelles 4573 3.1. Methods Demonstrating the Presence of Reverse Micelles 4573 3.2. Surfactant Packing at the Reverse Micelle Interface 4574 4. Reverse Micelles Encapsulating Nonaqueous Polar Organic Solvents 4578 4.1. Reverse Micelles Containing Glycerol 4578 4.2. Reverse Micelles Containing Other Polyols 4580 4.3. Reverse Micelles Containing Formamide 4582 4.4. Reverse Micelles Containing Other Amides: DMF and DMA 4584 4.5. Other Polar Solvents 4585 5. Requirements for Effective Reverse Micelle Formation 4586 5.1. Polar Solvent Properties 4586 5.2. Problem Systems: Methanol and Acetonitrile 4587 6. Room Temperature Ionic Liquids in Reverse Micelles 4589 7. Nonaqueous Reverse Micelles as Nanoreactors 4593 8. Future Directions and Cautions 4596 Author Information 4597 Corresponding Author 4597 Notes 4597 Biographies 4597 Acknowledgments 4598 References 4598

The interior water pool of aerosol OT (AOT) reverse micelles tends toward bulk water properties as the micelle size increases. Thus, deviations from bulk water behavior in large reverse micelles are less expected than in small reverse micelles. Probing the interior water pool of AOT reverse micelles with a highly charged decavanadate (V(10)) oligomer using (51)V NMR spectroscopy shows distinct changes in solute environment. For example, when an acidic stock solution of protonated V(10) is placed in a reverse micelle, the (51)V chemical shifts show that the V(10) is deprotonated consistent with a decreased proton concentration in the intramicellar water pool. Results indicate that a proton gradient exists inside the reverse micelles, leaving the interior neutral while the interfacial region is acidic.

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The behavior of 6-propionyl-2-dimethylaminonaphthalene (PRODAN) was studied in homogeneous media and in large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) of the phospholipid 1,2-di-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DOPC), using absorption, emission, depolarization, and time-resolved spectroscopies. In homogeneous media, the Kamlet and Taft solvatochromic comparison method quantified solute-solvent interactions from the absorption and emission PRODAN bands. These studies demonstrate that the absorption band is sensitive to the polarity-polarizability (pi) and the hydrogen bond donor ability (alpha) parameters of the media. PRODAN in the excited state is even more sensitive to these parameters and to the hydrogen bond acceptor ability (beta) of the media. The transition energy (expressed in kcal/mol) for both absorption and emission bands gives a linear correlation with the well-known polarity parameter E(T30). The results from the absorption and emission bands also reveal that PRODAN aggregates in water. The monomer has two fluorescence lifetimes, 2.27 and 0.65 ns, while the aggregate has a lifetime of 14.6 ns. Using steady-state anisotropy measurements, the calculated volumes of the aggregate and the monomer are 5590 and 222 mL mol(-1), respectively. In DOPC LUVs, PRODAN undergoes a partition process between the water bulk and the DOPC bilayer. We show that the partition constant (K(p)) value is large enough that only at [DOPC] below 0.15 mg/mL PRODAN in water can be detected. PRODAN dissolved in LUVs at [DOPC] > 1 mg/mL exists completely incorporated in its monomer form and senses two different microenvironments within the bilayer: a polar region in the interface near the water and a less polar and also less viscous environment, between the phospholipid tails. These environments were characterized by their fluorescence lifetimes (tau), showing that PRODAN in the polar microenvironment has a tau value of approximately 4 ns while in the less polar region gives a value of 1.2 ns. Moreover, this probe also senses the micropolarity of these two different regions of the bilayer and yields values similar to that of methanol and tetrahydrofuran.

The behavior of C343, a common molecular probe utilized in solvation dynamics experiments, was studied in homogeneous media and in aqueous and nonaqueous reverse micelles (RMs). In homogeneous media, the Kamlet and Taft solvatochromic comparison method quantified solute-solvent interactions from the absorption and emission bands showing that the solvatochromic behavior of the dye depends not only on the polarity of the medium but also on the hydrogen-bonding properties of the solvent. Specifically, in the ground state the molecule displays a bathochromic shift with the polarity polarizability (pi) and the H-bond acceptor (beta) ability of the solvents and a hypsochromic shift with the hydrogen donor ability (alpha) of the media. The carboxylic acid group causes C343 to display greater sensitivity to the beta than to the pi polarity parameter; this sensitivity increases in the excited state, while the dependence on alpha vanishes. This demonstrates that C343 forms a stable H-bond complex with solvents with high H-bond acceptor ability (high beta) and low H-bond donor character (low alpha). Spectroscopy in nonpolar solvents reveals J-aggregate formation. With information from the Kamlet-Taft analysis, C343 was used to explore RMs composed of water or polar solvents/sodium 1,4-bis-2-ethylhexylsulfosuccinate (AOT)/isooctane using absorption, emission, and time-resolved spectroscopies. Sequestered polar solvents included ethylene glycol (EG), formamide (FA), N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), and N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMA). Dissolved in the AOT RM systems at low concentration, C343 exists as a monomer, and when introduced to the RM samples in its protonated form, C343 remains protonated driving it to reside in the interface rather than the water pool. The solvathochromic behavior of the dye depends the specific polar solvent encapsulated in the RMs, revealing different types of interactions between the solvents and the surfactant. EG and water H-bond with the AOT sulfonate group destroying their bulk H-bonded structures. While water remains well segregated from the nonpolar regions, EG appears to penetrate into the oil side of the interface. In aqueous AOT RMs, C343 interacts with neither the sulfonate group nor the water, perhaps because of intramolecular H-bonding in the dye. DMF and DMA interact primarily through dipole-dipole forces, and the strong interactions with AOT sodium counterions destroy their bulk structure. FA also interacts with the Na+ counterions but retains its H-bond network present in bulk solvent. Surprisingly, FA appears to be the only polar solvent other than water forming a "polar-solvent pool" with macroscopic properties similar to the bulk.

Polar solvent-AOT interactions control non-aqueous/AOT/n-heptane reverse micelle polar core sizes.

The microenvironment of the polar core generated in different ionic liquid reverse micelle (IL RM) systems were investigated using the solvatochromic behavior of 1-methyl-8-oxyquinolinium betaine (QB) as an absorption probe and dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique. The novel RM systems consist of two different ILs--1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (bmimBF4) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (bmimTf2N)--sequestrated by two different surfactants--Triton X-100 (TX-100) and benzyl-n-hexadecyldimethylammonium chloride (BHDC)--in order to make IL/surfactant/benzene RMs. The effect of the variation of Ws (Ws=[IL]/[surfactant]) on the QB spectroscopy was used to characterize these nonaqueous RMs. DLS results confirm the formation of these IL RM systems because increasing Ws increases the droplet sizes. Moreover it is demonstrated that the structure of the sequestrated ILs depends strongly on the type of surfactant use to create the RMs.