CRITICAL MICELLE CONCENTRATION OF NONIONIC DETERGENTS

This paper describes the determination of the critical micelle concent ration (c.m.c.) of seven different p-t-octylphenol (ethylene oxide) et hers, distinguished by the length of their polyoxyethylene chains. The determinations were carried out by interfering methods which can infl uence micellization, e.g. spectrofluorimetric, and inert methods, e.g. determinations of surface tension. Ir was found that when the c.m.c. (in mol dm(-3)) was plotted against the number of oxyethylene units in the surfactant's hydrophilic chain, there was an almost linear increa se with increasing number of oxyethylene units.