Advances in Colloid and Interface Science 2018-03-17

Analysis of an old controversy: The compensation temperature for micellization of surfactants

M. Pilar Vázquez-Tato, Francisco Meijide, Julio A. Seijas, Francisco Fraga, José Vázquez Tato

Index: 10.1016/j.cis.2018.03.003

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Abstract

The actual significance of the so-called compensation temperature Tc for micellization of surfactants is reviewed. It is demonstrated that it is possible to obtain as many Tc values as the number of temperature intervals in which the dependencies of enthalpy and entropy changes with temperature are analyzed. The value of each Tc will be the central value To of each temperature interval. These two facts suggest that Tc is simply such experimental To. Thus any physical interpretation derived from Tc is unfounded.