ASSOCIATES, HEMIMICELLES, ADMICELLES, AND THE RESPONSE OF SURFACTANT ELECTRODES

This article is concerned with the unsolved problem of surfactant electrodes as regards their lack of sensitivity to the bulk association of surface-active agents. Here the properties of an electrode responding to tetraphenylboron anions and the state of sodium tetraphenylborate in bulk solutions have been studied. Examination of unusual jump-like concentration dependence of measured potential, bearing a resemblance to the titration curves, has led to the conclusion that the adsorption of membrane-penetrating ions and the adsorbed species are of fundamental importance for the functioning of the surfactant electrodes. Based on our own results and the literature data, new approaches have been proposed to address the problem in terms of hemimicelles and admicelles. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.