Formation of reverse micelles in supercritical carbon dioxide and its thermodynamics

Abstract

The solubilization behavior of methyl orange as a solvation probe in multiple systems composed of supercritical carbon dioxide, surfactants and co-solvents, is studied. It is concluded that some surfactants, such as sodium bis-(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT) and isooctyl phenol polyethoxylate (TX-10), could form reverse micelles in supercritical carbon dioxide under the action of butanol. The formation of reverse micelles is a spontaneous process thermodynamically. Specifically for the nonionic surfactant TX-10, the formation of reverse micelles is dependent on the entropy increase in the system, while for the anionic surfactant AOT, the micellization is mainly dominated by the increase in enthalpy at higher temperatures, but by the increase in entropy at lower temperatures.