ISSN: 0973-4945; CODEN ECJHAO

E-Journal of Chemistry
[Link] 2012, 9(4), 2268-2274

Effect of Temperature on the Critical

Micelle Concentration and Micellization
Thermodynamic of Nonionic Surfactants:
Polyoxyethylene Sorbitan Fatty Acid Esters

EHSAN MOHAJERI1 AND GHOLAMREZA DEHGHAN NOUDEH*2

1
Faculty of Pharmacy
Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
2
Pharmaceutics Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences,
Kerman, Iran
ghr_dehghan@[Link]

Received 27 January 2011; Accepted 12 April 2011

Abstract: In this study, non-ionic surfactants, polyoxyethylene sorbitan fatty acid

esters (polysorbate) are chosen to examine the temperature effect on the CMC over a
wide temperature range. The enthalpy and entropy of micelle formation are evaluated
according to the phase separation model. The surface tension of solutions was
determined by means of Du Nöuys ring. The CMC values were taken from the sharp
breaks in the surface tension vs. logarithms of surfactant concentration plots. As the
surfactants’ chain length increases the CMC at a constant temperature decreases,
which is directly related to the decrease of hydrophilicity of the molecules. For each
surfactant, as the system temperature increases, the CMC initially decreases and then
increases, owing to the smaller probability of hydrogen bond formation at higher
temperatures. The onset of micellization tends to occur at higher concentrations as the
temperature increases. To evaluate the enthalpy of micellization, the CMCs are first
correlated by a polynomial equation. It is found that ΔG°m decreases monotonically
as the temperature increases over the whole temperature range. Both ΔH°m and ΔS°m
appear to be decrease monotonically with an increase in temperature. The
compensation temperature was found to be 42 oC by linear regression over the whole
temperature range and for all three surfactant systems together.
Keywords: Nonionic surfactant, Micellization thermodynamic, CMC.

Introduction
The capacity of aggregation in a solution is one of the characteristics of surfactants. As the
aggregation formed, within a narrow concentration range, some physical properties of the
surfactant solutions change abruptly. Micelles are one type of aggregation, and the narrow
concentration range is called the critical micelle concentration (CMC), above which micelles
are formed in the solutions. Several parameters of micellization such as aggregation number
 Effect of Temperature on the Critical Micelle Concentration 2269

(n), and CMC can vary by changing the environmental conditions. Micellization is affected
by various factors including surfactant nature (chain length, hydrophobic volume, and head
group area), temperature, solvent, additive, pressure, pH, ionic strength, etc 1.

For ionic and amphoteric surfactants, micellization is affected by temperature as the

hydrophobic and head group interactions change with temperature. Accordingly, CMC
versus temperature studies have been performed to obtain information on these interactions2.
For ionic surfactants in an aqueous solution, the CMC first monotonically decreases to a
certain minimum around 25 °C while temperature is increasing temperature and then
increases with further increase in temperature displaying a U-shaped behavior3.

In nonionic surfactants, CMC decreases as the temperature is increased. This is due to

an increasing in the destruction of hydrogen bonds between water molecules and surfactanys
hydrophilic groups. The log CMC versus 1/T plot is nearly linear4. However, other studies
are showing something else, for the nonionic surfactants such as polyoxyethylenated glycol
monoether in an aqueous solution exhibited a minimum in the CMC-temperature curve. The
temperature of the minimum in the CMC-temperature curve is around 50 °C and increases
as the oxyethylene chain length increases. However, most of previous experiments were
carried out only up to 45 °C. It is fair to assume that 45 °C is too low to observe the
minimum CMC behavior in the CMC-temperature curve5.

In this study, polyoxyethylene sorbitan fatty acid esters (polysorbate) also known as
Tween® that are non-ionic surfactants with three different fatty acid ester chains are chosen to
evaluate the temperature effect on the CMC over a wide temperature range of 10 °C to 80 °C.
Surfactants include Polysorbate 20 or Polyoxyethylene 20 sorbitan monolaurate, Polysorbate 40
or Polyoxyethylene 20 sorbitan monopalmitate, Polysorbate 80 or Polyoxyethylene 20 sorbitan
monostearate, and Polysorbate 80 or Polyoxyethylene 20 sorbitan monooleate are selected6.

Polysorbates containing 20 units of oxyethylene are hydrophilic nonionic surfactants

and they are used widely as emulsifying agents in the preparation of stable oil-in-water
pharmaceutical emulsions. They may also be used as solubilizing agents for a variety of
substances including essential oils and oil-soluble vitamins, and as wetting agents in the
formulation of oral and parenteral suspensions7.

There is intense interest in determining the thermodynamic parameters of micellization

in aqueous solutions, namely, the standard Gibbs free energy of micellization, ΔG°m, the
enthalpy of micellization, ΔH°m and the entropy of micellization, ΔS°m. This is because they
quantify the relative importance of hydrophobic interactions, surfactant-water contact and
(for ionic surfactants) head-group repulsion. These parameters can be derived from the
temperature dependence of the CMC, for example, by application of the Van’t Hoff equation 8.
When CMC is measured at various temperatures, the thermodynamic potentials of
micellization can also be determined. ΔG°m may be obtained from the equation G o   RT ln K
m
n
where K and n being the equilibrium constant and association number, respectively. K is
expressed rigorously in terms of the activities and can be approximated in terms of
concentrations of the constituents, one of which is the concentration XCMC at the CMC, in
mole fraction units. The enthalpy and entropy of micelle formation are then evaluated
according to the phase separation model9.
2270 Gholamreza Dehghan noudeh et al.

To determine ΔH°m using ΔG°m and the Gibbs–Helmholtz equation, the temperature
dependence of ΔG°m should be known so that its partial derivatives with respect to T are
calculated. This signifies that XCMC should be described as a function of temperature and this
has been done by expressing XCMC as polynomials of temperature. However, such description
of XCMC is not theory-based and therefore a theory-based and rigorous equation is desired10.

Experimental
The nonionic surfactants Tween-20, -40 and -80 were obtained from Sigma Chemical Co.
(St. Louis, MO). Products were used as such without any further purification. Triply distilled
and deionized water was employed in the preparation of solutions. Solutions were kept in a
double-walled Pyrex vessel thermostatically controlled at a prescribed temperature. Identical
glass containers and volumes were used and the container wall was kept at a minimum to
reduce the effects due to adsorption on the container.

Since it was found that the surface tension decreases with time, Surface tension data
were taken 24 hour, after placing the plate on the dispersion surface, to ensure the steady-
state response had reached. It is believed that this dynamic behavior of surface tension is
mainly due to the slow mass transfer of surfactant molecules from the bulk solution onto the
interface and the slow rearrangement of surfactant molecular configuration at the interface.
Evaluating surface tension
The surface tension of solutions was determined by means of DuNouys ring platinum
(diameter: 19.6 mm, thickness: 0.1 mm) on Krüss tensiometer K100. Temperature was
controlled with a jacket linked to a water circulating system (± 0.1 oC). The results show
accuracy within ±0.1 mNm−1. The results (±2%) were the average of four measurements. To
prevent the contamination of the solution from dust in the air during the operation, the vessel
had a cover with a hole only allowing a small ring (DuNouys ring) to go through, and the
whole vessel was placed inside a closed sample chamber of the surface tensiometer. The
CMC values were taken from the sharp breaks in the surface tension vs. logarithms of
surfactant concentration plots. The CMC, values are expressed in mol/mL.

Results and Discussion

Evaluation of the surface tension of the surfactants
The surfactants surface tension was measured as a function of their concentration at several
different temperatures, as shown in Figure 1. The CMC for three surfactants was then
considered as the concentration at the sharp break.
For each surfactant, as the system temperature increases, the CMC initially decreases and then
increases, as shown in Figure 2. Owing to the smaller probability of hydrogen bond formation at
higher temperatures, the initial decrease of the CMC with temperature is a consequence of the
decreased hydrophilicity of the surfactant molecules. In other words, the increase in temperature
causes the reduction in hydration of the hydrophilic oxyethylene group, which favour
micellization. Consequently, as the temperature increases the micellization onset occurs at lower
concentrations. On the other hand, dissolving the surfactant molecules in water makes the
hydrophobic group distorts the water structure. Additionally increase in temperature also causes
an increase in the breakdown of the structured water surrounding the hydrophobic groups,
which disfavours micellization. Consequently, the onset of micellization tends to occur at higher
concentrations as the temperature increases. Therefore, as the temperature increases further, the
effect of the hydrophobic groups begins to exert an influence and finally predominates as the
 Effect of Temperature on the Critical Micelle Concentration 2271

CMC reaches a minimum value and finally increases with temperature. The temperatures of
minimum CMC are found to be 43, 42 and 40 oC for Polysorbate 20, 40 and 80 respectively.
Note that the temperature of minimum CMC is systematically higher as the fatty acid chain
length decreases, in accord with the result of Chen et al 5.

a b
, mN/m

, mN/m
C, 10-6 mol/lit C, 10-6 mol/lit
, mN/m

C, 10-6 mol/lit

Figure 1. The variation of surface tension as a function of surfactant concentration in

aqueous solution (a) Polysorbate-20 (b) Polysorbate-40 and (c) Polysorbate-80 at different
temperatures (10-80 oC).
CMC, 10-6 mol/lit

T, oC
Figure 2. The variation of CMC as a function of temperature for different surfactants.
It is obvious that for all three surfactant solutions the surface tension γCMC decreases
monotonically as the temperature increases (Figure 3) and Polysorbate-80 is the most
surface active among the three systems over the whole temperature range. It should be
further noted that the decrease in surface tension γCMC is more pronounced for surfactants
2272 Gholamreza Dehghan noudeh et al.

with a longer fatty acid chain length, as shown in Figure 3, due to an increase of the rupture
of hydrogen bonds.

CMC, mN/m

T, oC
Figure 3. The variation of surface tension at CMC as a function of temperature for different
surfactants.
It is well understood that there exists hydrogen bonding between water and surfactant
molecules. While the temperature increases, some of the existing hydrogen bonds would
rupture due to thermal fluctuation, which makes the surfactant molecules more hydrophobic,
and thus the surface tension decreases. Therefore, the dehydration effect would be somewhat
more pronounced for longer chain length surfactants since the surfactant molecule binds
considerably more water molecules.
Surface pressure
Inoue et al.11 found a decrease of surface pressure (πCMC), defined by πCMC = γ0 - γCMC,
against rising temperature for some polyoxyethylene nonionic surfactants. The symbol γ 0 is
the surface tension of water. Figure 4 shows that the surface pressure π CMC decreases
monotonically as the temperature increases over a wide temperature range (10-80 °C) for
three surfactants. For the Polysorbate-80, the surface pressure πCMC remains constant at low
temperatures, and then decreases with further increase in temperature. However, for the
Polysorbate-20, the surface pressure πCMC remains almost constant over the temperature
range, except that at high temperature a slight decrease of surface pressure π CMC is observed.
Our results are consistent with those of Chen et al.5 in the whole temperatures range.
CMC, mN/m

T, oC
Figure 4. The variation of surface pressure πCMC as a function of temperature for the
surfactants Polysorbate-80 (+), Polysorbate-40 ( ) and Polysorbate-20 ( )
Determination of thermodynamic parameters
The CMC temperature dependence may be used to estimate the enthalpy and entropy of
micellization. According to the phase separation model 12 and the mass action model13, the
standard Gibbs free energy of micellization per mole of a surfactant monomer is given by
Eq. (1) where XCMC is the mole fraction of surfactant in aqueous solution at the CMC.
 Effect of Temperature on the Critical Micelle Concentration 2273

Gmo  RT ln xCMC (1)

As the aggregation number of surfactant monomers is not too small and not strongly
temperature dependent13, the enthalpy of micellization can be obtained by applying the
Gibbs-Helmholtz Eq. to (1):

Gmo / T  Gmo / T 
H mo  T 2 x   RT 2 x (2)
T T

To evaluate the enthalpy of micellization, the CMCs are first correlated by a polynomial
equation where constants a, b, c, and d are determined by least-squares regression analyses:

Ln xCMC(T) = a+bT + cT2 + dT2 (3)

The enthalpy of micellization is calculated by substituting Eq. (3) into Eq. (2):

H mo   RT2 (b  2cT )  3dT 2 (4)

As the Gibbs free energy and the enthalpy of micellization are obtained, the entropy of
micelle formation can be determined by:
1
S mo  (5)
T (H mo  Gmo )
Figure 5 shows the temperature dependence of ΔG°m and −TΔS°m for polysorbate-20,
polysorbate-40 and polysorbate-80 in an aqueous system. At low temperatures, the
micellization process is endothermic (ΔH°m> 0) and becomes exothermic ( ΔH°m < 0) at high
temperatures. Our results show that the negative value of Gibbs free energy of micellization
is mainly due to the large positive value of entropy, especially at low temperatures.
Therefore, the micellization is an entropy-driven process.
Energy , KJ/mol

T, oC

Figure 5. The variations of ΔH°m (squares) and −TΔS°m (circles) as a function of temperature
for three surfactants (Polysorbate-40, Polysorbate-20 and Polysorbate-80 are show by white,
black, and grey respectively).
The increase in entropy of micellization in an aqueous medium can be explained from
two aspects: First the iceberg formation5 of the water molecules surrounding the surfactant
molecules would increase the system order, here the micellization process by removing the
surfactant molecules from the aqueous medium to the micelle would certainly increase the
entropy of the system simply due to the rupture of iceberg; second the degree of rotational
2274 Gholamreza Dehghan noudeh et al.

freedom of the hydrophobic chain of surfactant molecules in the non-polar interior of the
micelle is much larger than that in the aqueous medium8; in other words, the configurational
entropy of hydrophobic chain of surfactant molecules is increased when the surfactant
molecules are removed from the aqueous medium to the micelle.
It is found that ΔG°m decreases monotonically as the temperature increases over the
whole temperature range from 10 °C to 80 °C. Both ΔH°m and ΔS°m appear to be decrease
monotonically with an increase in temperature. According to Eq. (5), these two properties
(ΔH°m and ΔS°m) have opposite effects on ΔG°m. Therefore, ΔG°m depends on the relative
amount of the changes in ΔH°m and ΔS°m . There is a good linearity correlation between ΔH°m
and ΔS°m , which can be interpreted by

H mo  H mo  Tc Smo (6)

Where Tc is the compensation temperature and ΔH°m is the intercept of the compensation
line. In other words, the compensation temperature is temperature dependent and slightly
larger at higher temperatures, in accord with the previous findings 9,11. It is well believed that
the compensation temperature is a characteristic of hydrophobic interactions between
solvent and solute molecules and the intercept ΔH°m is the measure of solute-solute
interaction5.

Conclusion
The compensation temperature was found to be 42 oC by linear regression over the whole
temperature range and for all three surfactant systems together.

Conflicting interests
The authors declare that they have no conflicting interests.
References
1. Sinnko J, Martin’s “Physical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences,” 5 th Ed.,
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, 2006, Chapter 9.
2. Goto A, Takemoto M and Endo F, Bull Chem Soc Jpn., 1985, 58, 247-251.
3. Rosen J M, “Surfactants and Interfacial Phenomena,” 3rd Ed., John Wiley & Sons,
New York, 2004, Chapter 3.
4. Hall D G, “Nonionic Surfactants Physical Chemistry,” Marcel Dekker, New York,
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5. Chen L, Lin S Y and Huang C, Colloids Surf A Physicochem Eng Asp., 1998, 135,
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6. Rowe R, Sheskey P and Owen S, “Handbook of Pharmaceutical Excipients,” 5th ed.,
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7. Jiao J, Adv Drug Deliv Rev., 2008, 60, 1663–1673.
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13. Rafati A A, Gharibi H and Rezaie-Sameti M, J Mol Liq., 2004, 111, 109–116.
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