Multinuclear NMR characterization of CTAB-hexanol-water, sodium oleate-butanol-water and triton X-100-decanol-water microemulsions

Multinuclear NMR is a very valuable tool to characterize micellar systems or microemulsions. It allows one to determine c.m.c. values, to study the dissolution of organic molecules, the solvation of cations and anions, the structural changes occurring in a ternary diagram, the mobility of the molecules, etc. This review paper essentially deals with the characterization of cationic (CTAB-hexanol-water), anionic (sodium oleate-butanol-water) and neutral (Triton X-100-decanol-water) reversed micelles. The use of paramagnetic ions [Ni(II), CO(II), Fe(III), etc.] is particularly emphasized to characterize the site of solubilization and their interaction with surfactant and cosurfactant molecules 13C-NMR). It is concluded, that the metallic ions are basically solvated in the inner water cores and one or more hexanol molecules are included in their first coordination shells in the CTAB-hexanol-water microemulsions. In the Triton X-100-decanol-water microemulsions, both decanol and Triton X-100 molecules enter the first coordination shell of Co(II) ions which are dissolved in both aqeous water cores and the organic medium. 19F-NMR of a fluorinated probe molecule is particularly useful to study the size of the inner water cores. The method is based on the partition of the molecules between the interface and the organic medium. However, this method has to be applied with great care, and the computed data have to be compared to other physico-chemical results. Both 19F- and 23Na-NMR results show a great variation of the behaviour of the sodium oleate-butanol-water system in the so-called bicontinuous region. The Na+ ions are oriented independently on a hypothetical inverse micellar droplet. (author). 43 refs.; 18 figs.; 7 tabs