Accurate Critical Micelle Concentrations from a Microscopic Surfactant Model

Abstract

A single chain mean field theory is used to quantitatively describe the micellization process of the nonionic polyethylene oxide alkyl ether, C(n)E(m) class of surfactants at 25 °C. An explicit but simple microscopic model with only three interaction parameters is shown to be able to reproduce with high accuracy the critical micelle concentrations of a wide range of head and tail surfactant lengths. In addition, the aggregation number of the micelles is studied, the effect of the number of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic segments on CMC and aggregation number of the micelles are discussed and volume fraction profiles are given.