Dynamics and local environment of an aromatic counterion bound to di-chain cationic surfactant bilayers studied by avoided level crossing muon spin resonance: evidence for counterion condensation.

Avoided level crossing muon spin resonance (ALC-μSR) has been used to study the reorientational dynamics of muon-spin-labelled 2,4,6-trimethylbenzoate (246TMB−) counterions and their interaction with DODMAC (dioctadecyldimethylammonium chloride) bilayers in the Lα and Lβ liquid crystalline states. The muoniated radical anion formed by the addition of muonium to the secondary carbons of the aromatic ring of 246TMB− is used as a local spin probe. The muon and methylene proton hyperfine parameters and the electron spin relaxation rate (λe) of the muoniated spin probe were determined as a function of temperature by modelling the ALC-μSR spectra with Monte Carlo numerical simulations. The observation of a Δ1 resonance indicates that 246TMB− is undergoing anisotropic motion and doesn't reside in the aqueous layer in either the Lα and Lβ phases. The lack of an abrupt change in the hyperfine parameters or λe when the system goes from the Lβ to the Lα lamellar liquid crystalline phases suggests that 246TMB− is located at the oil–water interface rather than within the bilayer. The hyperfine parameters indicate that 246TMB− is undergoing large amplitude reorientational motion about a preferred orientation resulting from the bilayer's electric field. The interaction between 246TMB− and the bilayer decreases and the amplitude of the wobbling-in-a-cone motion increases with increasing temperature. The temperature dependence of the electron spin relaxation rate indicates the barrier to reorientation is 41.7 kJ mol−1.