Effect of Ethylene Glycol on the Thermodynamic and Micellar Properties of Tween 40, 60, and 80

Abstract

The self-aggregation of Tween 40, Tween 60, and Tween 80 in ethylene glycol-water mixture was investigated using surface tension, density, and fluorescence measurements. The mixtures were observed to appreciably affect the critical micelle concentration (cmc) of the surfactants and their aggregation numbers. In order to evaluate the influence of the solvent mixture, the difference in the Gibbs energy of micellization of Tween 40, Tween 60, and Tween 80 between water and binary mixtures were determined. The ability of ethylene glycol acting as a structure breaker and its interaction with the surfactant hydrophilic group are the controlling factors for the micellization of the surfactants in the mixture. The surface activity of the surfactants decreases with increasing concentration of ethylene glycol in the mixture. Micellar micropolarity was determined using the fluorescence method. The results indicate the participation by ethylene glycol in the micellar solvation layer.

Mixed Micellization and Interfacial Properties of Polyoxyethylene Sorbitan Esters with Cetylpyridinium Chloride: A Tensiometric Study

“…1. The CMC values read from the curves for pure surfactants agree reasonably well with literature values [1,19,[34][35][36].…”

Self-assembly of tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide in glycerol aqueous mixtures: A thermodynamic and structural study

“…From these investigations, the solution behaviour of these substances and their structural characteristics are reasonably well known. In recent years, however, many workers have turned their attention to the aggregation phenomenon of surfactants in solvent systems constituted by a mixture of water with some polar organic solvent [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. In these studies, water is gradually replaced with other polar solvent, so that one can explore a wide range of solvophobicities.…”

Phase behavior of the mixtures of poly(oxyethylene) (10) stearyl ether (Brij-76), 1-butanol, isooctane, and mixed polar solvents

“…This indicated that mixing of EG (or TEG) with water modified the curvature of the interface and produced the phase transformation at a lower value of cosurfactant, thereby increasing the solubilization capacity of the system. The minimum in the X b vs ψ profile can be explained as a competition between two opposing factors; it has been reported that mixing of EG with water increased the cmc of both ionic and nonionic surfactant solutions [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. On the other hand, since the EG-hydrocarbon interfacial tension is smaller than the water interfacial tension, the aggregation number in the mixed solvent decreased, which in turn would increase the surface area per surfactant molecule.…”

“…EG is an important member of this class of organic NPS, since it contains two hydroxyl groups that can undergo hydrogen bond formation, a prerequisite for the aggregation of surfactants in a solvent [22]. But only limited studies have been carried out on the formation and characterization of micelles using this NPS [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. It has been reported that both inter-and intramolecular hydrogen bonds are formed in EG, although they are not as strong as those formed in water.…”