Clouding and hydrodynamic behaviour of Triton X-100 in aqueous media in the presence of linear and cyclic glycols, their oligomers and ethers

The effects of various linear glycol ethers and cyclic ethers on cloud point and hydrodynamic diameter of aqueous micellar solution of a nonionic surfactant Triton X-100 (TX-100) has been studied spectrophotometrically. For short chain glycols (EG, DEG, PG, DPG) and their oligomers, and, monoalkyl ethers, increase in the cloud point with corresponding decrease in micelle size is observed, while the opposite trend is observed for their higher homologues. The effect of short chain glycols on CP/Dh is discussed in terms of their solubility in solution, micelles hydration and cosurfactant/ cosolvent of TX-100 micellar system. These effects are strongly dependent on additive concentration. For longer chain glycols or more hydrophobic glycols, the effects can be explained in terms of their partitioning in the micellar region and changes in size and shape of the micelles. A different approach for normalising the cloud points to their relative values has been made for a better insight on effect of these glycol ethers. The thermodynamic parameters for the mixture are also calculated as a function of glycol ether concentrations.