Examination of Surface Adsorption of Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide and Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate

Several pieces of experimental evidence of condensation of soluble surfactant molecules, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), into the air/water surface region from the bulk solution are presented at different added salt concentrations in order to substantiate that the concentrated molecules do not locate just at the air/solution interface. The insoluble monolayer just at the air/subphase interface for the two surfactants could be studied by surface pressure (pi) versus molecular surface area (A), surface potential (Delta V) versus the area (A), infrared absorption of the surface region, and BAM (Brewster angle microscope) image. From surface tension versus concentration curves for the two surfactant solutions, the apparent molecular surface area and the cmc values were determined at different added salt concentrations, and the degree of counterion binding to micelle was found to be 0.70 and 0.73 for CTAB and SDS, respectively. Further examination was made on infrared absorption from the surface region of the surfactant solutions and on BAM images of the surface planes in order to examine the difference between the insoluble monolayer and the condensation in the surface region. Finally, the new concept of bilayer or bilamellar aggregate for soluble surfactant solutions is presented together with the former experimental evidence, which is consistent with several interfacial phenomena of the surfactant solutions.