Herein,
we report the effect of employing two different alcohols,
such as n-pentanol and 2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5-octafluoro
pentanol (from now on F-pentanol), into 1,4-bis-2-ethylhexylsulfosuccinate
(AOT) reverse micelles (RMs), to determine the interfacial activity
and establish the best candidate to act as a cosurfactant in supercritical
RMs. Dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR),
and fluorescence emission spectroscopy allowed us to determine and
understand the behavior of alkanols in RMs. As a result, we found
interesting displacements of alkanol molecules within the RMs, suggesting
that the electrostatic interaction between SO3
– and Na+ weakens because of new interactions of n-pentanol with SO3
– through
H-bonds, changing the curvature of the micellar interface. According
to FT-IR and DLS studies, F-pentanol forms a RM polar core interacting
through intermolecular H-bonds, suggesting no perturbations of the
AOT RM interface. Hence, n-pentanol was selected
as a cosurfactant to form supercritical RMs, which is confirmed by
red edge excitation shift studies, using C343 as a molecular probe.
Herein, we were able to create RMs under supercritical conditions
without the presence of modified surfactants, fluorinated or multitailed
compounds, which, to the best of our knowledge, was not shown before.