The Effect of Aniline Hydrochloride Hydrotrope on the Phase Behavior of SDS/Water System

The aim of this work was to determine the detailed phase behavior of the sodium dodecyl sulfate/aniline hydrochloride/water system as a function of concentration of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), aniline hydrochloride (AHC) to sodium dodecyl sulfate molar ratio (R = [AHC]/[SDS]) and temperature. Phase behavior information was obtained via polarizing microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), cryo-scanning electron microscopy (Cryo-SEM) and oscillatory linear rheological measurements with good agreement among these techniques. It is well known that SDS in water forms spherical micelles at concentrations lower than 40 wt% and temperatures above its Krafft temperature (T k = 16–21 °C). In this region, the SDS/water system exhibits Newtonian rheological behavior, which is characteristic of spherical micellar solutions. The addition of the hydrotrope, aniline hydrochloride, to SDS aqueous solutions produces a viscosity increase in this system as R augments, and a maximum of about five orders of magnitude was found at R = 0.47 for 5 wt% SDS at 20 °C. Moreover, the system shows a transition from viscous to strong viscoelastic behavior. These changes in the rheological behavior are produced by the transitions from sphere to rodlike micelles, which are induced by the hydrophobicity of AHC causing it to be absorbed into the core and the hydrophilic interface of the micelles, which screens the repulsions between the charged head groups.