Electromotive force study on interaction between a triblock copolymer and cationic surfactants in water

The interaction between a poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) triblock copolymer F127 and three cationic surfactants with varying alkyl chain length in water were investigated in detail by electromotive force (EMF) studies. The cationic surfactants investigated are hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HTAB), myristytrimethylammonium bromide (MTAB), and lauryltrimethylammonium bromide (LTAB) which have carbon numbers of 16, 14, and 12 in the alkyl chain, respectively. Obvious binding was detected by EMF measurements between F127 and HTAB. For MTAB, the binding has also been detected with a weaker strength than that of HTAB. The LTAB/F127 mixed system exhibits the weakest binding, presumably due to the too short alkyl chain. This indicates that the binding between cationic surfactants and F127 is mainly dominated by the hydrophobic/hydrophobic interaction. In addition, the interaction also shows considerable dependence on the concentration of F127 and solution parameters such as the salinity.