Effect of aromatic ring in the alkyl chain on surface properties of arylalkyl surfactant solutions

Surface properties of two series of anionic arylalkyl surfactants, containing different aromatic rings in the straight aliphatic chain, sodium N-aryloleyl-N-methyl-2-aminoethanesulfonates and sodium N-aryloleyl p-methoxyanilinesulfonates, were investigated. An increase of the aromatic ring size in the alkyl chain increases the critical micelle concentration (CMC) and surface tension at CMC. However, this also decreases the efficiency and effectiveness in reducing water surface tension. The dominant factor of the decrease of efficiency and effectiveness is attributed to the function of the hydrophilic segment and hydrophobic segment for arylalkyl surfactants, respectively. The same results are found in the standard free energy of adsorption (Delta G(ads)(degrees)) and the standard free energy of micellization (Delta G(mic)(degrees)) values. Moreover, with the increase of the aromatic ring size, the adsorption and micellization of arylalkyl surfactants begin to weaken. The data indicate that some parts of surface proper-ties for arylalkyl surfactants are affected by the bulkiness of the arylalkyl chain. The results provide opportunities for further detailed examination of surface properties of arylalkyl surfactants with other branched alkyl chains.