The demicellization of alkyltrimethylammonium bromides in 0.1 M sodium chloride solution studied by isothermal titration calorimetry.

The demicellization of the cationic detergents dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide, tetradecyltrimetylammonium bromide, and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide was studied at temperatures between 20 and 60 degrees C in 0.1 M NaCl (pH 6.4) using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). We determined the critical micellization concentration (cmc) of the cationic detergents which show a minimum at temperatures between 20 and 34 degrees C. In accordance with the lengthening of the hydrophobic tail of the detergents the cmc decreases with increasing alkyl chain length. The thermodynamic parameters describing the changes of enthalpy (DeltaH(demic)), the changes of entropy (DeltaS(demic)) and the Gibbs free energy change (DeltaG(demic)) for demicellization were first obtained using the pseudophase-separation model. The aggregation number n at the cmc as well as the demicellization enthalpy, entropy and Gibbs free energy change were also calculated using a simulation based on the mass-action model. Furthermore, we investigated the demicellization of CTAB in deionized water in comparison to demicellization in sodium chloride solution to determine the influence of counter ion binding on the demicellization.