Properties of the L and lyotropic phases in CTAB/glycerol/water and CTAB/glyceraldehyde/water systems

The behavior of glycerol and glyceraldehyde as cosurfactants in the ternary CTAB/glycerol/water and CTAB/glyceraldehyde/water systems is studied. The phase diagrams only show the L and the hexagonal H-1 phases. The L phase co nductivity results at low surfactant concentration agree with no interactio n between both cosurfactants and CTAB micelles. The rheological behavior of the L phase samples shows that the micelles at low surfactant content beha ve as Newtonian fluids. Whereas, samples close to the hexagonal phase show a shear-thinning behavior, consistent with the formation of cylindrical mic elles, and in this case, there is a larger interaction between both cosurfa ctants with the CTAB micelles.