Fr.actionation factors, rpM' of interfacial water at surfaces of cationic and zwitterionic surfactants were determined from the dependence of the 1H chemical shift of water on the isotopic composition of the solvent (H°p lus O 2°) .~alue~of rpM are greater than unity, showing that interfacial water is more structured than bulk water who.se fractionation factor = 1, by defin.itio.n. The structuring increases with increasing bulk of the headgroup: but IS unaffected by the length of the catiomc surfactant hydrophobic tail. The effect of zwitterionic sulfobetaine s~r~actants on the structure of their water of hydration is less than that of cationic surfactants that have otherwise slm.ll~r .headgrou~s. Values of rpM for cationic micelles are: cetyldimethylphenylammonium chloride, 1.08; cetylp~ndln1Um chlonde, 1.06; and dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide, 1.06. Values of QlM for sulfobetaine micelles are: 3-N-tetradecyl-N,N-di-n-butylammonio-I-propane sulfonate, 1.07, and 3-N-tetradecyl-N,N-diethylammonio-I-propane sulfonate, 1.03.7]. These methods often involve hydrophobic solutes whose (average) solubilization site in the micellar pseudophase is a matter of discussion, and they may perturb aggregate structure [8, 9]. In the present work, we examine effects of the nature of surfactant headgroups on the structure of interfacial water by measuring the deuterium solvent isotope effect on the 1H chemical shift of the solvent (H 20 plus D 20). Isotopic substitution in the solvent involves minimum perturbation of the micellar system. The resulting secondary isotope effect is, however, small, but 1H NMR spectroscopy is a very sensitive technique and is, therefore, suitable for measurement of such small effects [10][11][12][13][14][15][16].It is convenient to describe isotope effects in terms of fractionation factors, rp, defined for a micelle, M, as:That is, for a micelle in H 20-D20, the fractionation factor for interfacial water, rpM, describes the isotopic composition at the aggregate/water interface relative to that in bulk solvent [14][15][16].We are interested in exploiting the value of rpM to probe effects of the charge and nature of headgroups on the degree of structure of interfacial water. To date, effects of micelles of various ionic, zwitterionic and nonionic surfactants have been examined [14][15][16]. In the present work we examine effects due to aromatic or bulky alkyl headgroups in cationic and zwitterionic sulfobetaine micelles, as well as variation in the length of the surfactant hydrophobic tail.Earlier results showed that hydrophobic headgroups (phenyl or n-butyl) enhance the structure of interfacial water; electrostriction by the charged interface and hydrophobic hydration of the bulky group being the main factors.