Coexistence and growth of micellar species in a sugar-based surfactant/phenol mixture studied by analytical ultracentrifugation.

Knowledge of the shape and size of surfactant micelles in the presence of small organic molecules is important for understanding the solubilization properties of micellar phases. In this work, structural information on micelles of mixed n-dodecyl-β-D-maltoside (DM) and phenol, including the aggregation number, diffusion coefficient, and effective radius, was obtained using an analytical ultracentrifugation technique. The micelles were found to increase in size and undergo shape transition from quasispherical to cylindrical with an increase in the surfactant and phenol concentrations in the micellar phase. Importantly, the coexistence of different micellar species was observed in certain cases with the larger species double the size of the smaller one. Based on the results obtained, a two-step micellar growth model is proposed to describe the micelles shape transition in the system. In the first step, the micelles expand continuously, whereas in the second step, it undergoes a sudden shift from the existing micellar species to a larger species causing the coexistence of two micellar species. This micellar growth is attributed to molecular packing and intermicellar interaction energy parameters. The mechanism proposed can be applied to other mixed systems and utilized for devising chemicals for the efficient removal of pollutants.