Colloidal chemistry - interpretation of lecture notes

[superwolf]

How do you interpret this?

 

[anisotropic]

My guess is:

• Greater than 8 surfactant molecules are required to form a functional micelle.
• Non-ionic surfactant behaviour is affected by solution temperature.
• Ionic surfactant behaviour is affected by electrolytes in solution.

 

[superwolf]

Seems reasonable :)

 

[chemisttree]

What it really means is that you need at least 8 carbons in your alkyl chain before you start to form stable micelles. It isn't impossible for C7 compounds to do it but http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jm00228a025" [Broken]

The other part of your notes can be interpreted as: As you change the temperature in solutions of non-ionic surfactants you can see different behavior (different behavior = changes in CMC for example). In ionic surfactants, electrolytes can cause these changes as well (as does temperature but they are not as sensitive to temperature as the non-ionic ones).