Preparation of Hydrogenated Surfactant/SC CO2 Micelles and Their Micropolarity Determination

The influence of CO2-philicity and -phobicity of hydrogenated surfactants on preparation of reverse micelles in SC CO2 have been investigated for the first time. To this end, we used polyethylene glycol mono n-alkyl ether surfactants of different polar head groups and alkyl tails. Micelles prepared were characterized by dissolving 1-ethyl-4-methoxycarbonyl pyridinium iodide probe and recording its charge-transfer band in UV absorption region. From the transition energy of charge transfer band the polarity of the aqueous core of micelles was determined in terms of solvent polarity scale ET (30) values.