Structure of nonionic surfactant micelles in the ionic liquid ethylammonium nitrate.

The structure of micelles formed by nonionic polyoxyethylene alkyl ether nonionic surfactants, C n E m , in the room-temperature ionic liquid, ethylammonium nitrate (EAN), has been determined by small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) as a function of alkyl and ethoxy chain length, concentration, and temperature. Micelles are found to form for all alkyl chains from dodecyl through to octadecyl. Dodecyl-chained surfactants have high critical micelle concentrations, around 1 wt%, and form weakly structured micelles. Surfactants with longer alkyl chains readily form micelles in EAN. The observed micelle structure changes systematically with alkyl and ethoxy chain length, in parallel with observations in aqueous solutions. Decreasing ethoxy chain length at constant alkyl chain length leads to a sphere to rod transition. These micelles also grow into rods with increasing temperature as their cloud point is approached in EAN.