Influence of the structure of the hydrophobe on the ideality of mixing in micelles in binary mixtures of amphiphilic tricyclic drugs

The composition of the micelles in binary mixtures of the cationic amphiphilic antidepressant drugs nortriptyline, amitriptyline, and doxepin has been determined from an analysis of the variation of the critical micelle concentration from conductivity measurements, as a function of solution composition. Assessment of the nonideality of mixing in terms of the interaction parameter from the regular solution approximation showed small deviations from ideal mixing, with negative interaction parameters for nortriptyline/amitriptyline systems and positive interaction parameters for mixtures of nortriptyline and doxepin. These differences in nonideality have been attributed to differences in the packing of the drugs in the mixed micelles arising from differences in the structure of the hydrophobe. (C) Elsevier Science (USA).