Determination of Critic al Mic elle Conc entration
Values Using Capillary Elec trophoresis
Instrumentation Alejandro Cifuentes,
J ose L. Bernal,
and J ose C. Diez-Masa*
, Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, University of Valladolid, Paseo de la Magdalena s/n, 47011 Valladolid, Spain, and Institute of Organic Chemistry (CSIC), Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain Thepurposeofthisworkistodemonstratetheusefulness of capillary electrophoresis (CE) instrumentation for determiningvaluesofcritical micelleconcentration(cmc) ofsurfactants. TheapproachessentiallyconsistsofaCE version of thetraditional method of measuringvalues of cmcbyconductivity. Namely, thedifferentconductivities of ionic surfactants in solution depending on their ag- gregation state, i.e., as monomers or micelles, and the effect on theelectrical current as usuallymeasured in a CE apparatusareemployedtodeterminethecmcvalues. Thecmc of sodiumdodecyl sulfate(SDS) and cetyltrim- ethylammoniumbromide (CTAB) is obtained in several mediasuchaswater, aqueoussolutionscontainingsalts, organosalinesolutions, andaqueoussolutionscontaining -cyclodextrin. Thecmcvaluesfor SDSandCTAB under these conditions are in good agreement with those re- portedintheliterature. Advantagesanddrawbacksofthis procedureas well as its implications in micellar electro- kineticchromatographyarediscussed. Fromour results, it is deduced that the present method can be used with highconfidencetodeterminevalues of cmc inafast and easyway. In the early 1930s, Bury and co-workers 1,2 established the term critical micelle concentration (cmc), defining it as a concentra- tion range below which surfactant is in solution as a monomer and above which practically all additional surfactant added to the solution forms micelles. As mentioned by Mukerjee and Mysels, 3 cmc is probably the simplest way of describing the colloid and surface behavior of a surfactant solute. Moreover, this value determines the industrial usefulness and biological activity of detergents as well as some other interesting surfactant features like solute-solvent and solute-solute interactions. Directly related to the solute-solvent interactions in micellar mediais the application of surfactants in separation science. 4 That is, the different associations or solubilizations of analytes by aqueous micelles are employed for their separation in, e.g., liquid chromatography, liquid-liquid extractions, cloud point extractions, membrane techniques, etc. In 1984, Terabe and co-workers 5 introduced a new separation mode of capillary electrophoresis (CE) using surfactants. This new CE mode, called micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC), allows the separation of analytes without charge under the influence of an electric field, while improving the solubility of highly hydrophobic substances in the separation buffer. Both effects are the result of the use of surfactants, mainly sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), which are added to the separation buffer at concentrations higher than their cmc. As described in the literature, 6-10 MEKC has found numerous applications in the separation of drugs, metabolites, and other small molecules and also in the field of biopolymers. In MEKC, as well as in any other separation technique using amphiphilic molecules, agood knowledge of the cmc value of the surfactant employed in the actual separation media is mandatory to optimize and even to carry out the analysis. Moreover, it has to be stressed that cmc values depend on the separation condi- tions, e.g., ionic strength, temperature, additives, etc. In order to determine such values, a large variety of methods have been traditionally employed, 3 e.g., conductivity, light scat- tering, surface tension, spectrophotometry, etc. More recently, other new methods, such as speed of sound 11 or NMR, 12 have been shown to be useful for this type of determination. MEKC has been also applied to the determination of cmc values. 13-15 In some works, plots of capacity factor, k, versus concentration of surfactant have been employed, 13,14 obtaining the cmc value by extrapolating to k ) 0. However, this method does not seem to be reliable enough to obtain cmc values, as mentioned by some authors. 13 The other MEKC procedure is based on the variation of the effective electrophoretic mobility of a neutral compound with the surfactant concentration, 15 which, in turn, is related to the cmc value. However, it is well known that the use of an indicator dye which is included into the micelle can alter the cmc value to some extent. 3 In fact, cmc values measured using * Corresponding author. Fax: 34-1-5644853. E-mail: diez-masa@pinar1.csic.es.
University of Valladolid.
Institute of Organic Chemistry (CSIC).
(1) Davies, D. G.; Bury, C. R. J. J. Chem. Soc. 1930, 2263-2270. (2) Grindley, J.; Bury, C. R. J. J. Chem. Soc. 1929, 679-684. (3) Mukerjee, P.; Mysels, K. J. Critical Micelle Concentration of Aqueous Surfactan Systems; National Bureau of Standards: Washington, DC, 1970. (4) Armstrong, D. W. Sep. Purif. Methods 1985, 14, 213-304. (5) Terabe, S.; Otsuka, K.; Ichikawa, K.; Tsuchiya, A.; Ando, T. Anal. Chem. 1984, 56, 111-113. (6) Kuhr, W. G. Anal. Chem. 1990, 62, 403R-414R. (7) Kuhr, W. G.; Monnig, C. A. Anal. Chem. 1992, 64, 389R-407R. (8) Monnig, C. A.; Kennedy, R. T. Anal. Chem. 1994, 66, 280R-314R. (9) St. Claire, R. L. Anal. Chem. 1996, 68, 569R-586R. (10) Matsubara, N.; Terabe, S. In Capillary Electrophoresis in Analytical Bio- technology; Righetti, P. G., Ed.; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 1996; pp 155- 182. (11) Junquera, E.; Tardajos, G.; Aicart, E. Langmuir 1993, 9, 1213-1219. (12) Lee, Y. S.; Woo, K. W. J. Colloid InterfaceSci. 1995, 169, 34-38. (13) Terabe, S.; Otsuka, K.; Ando, T. Anal. Chem. 1985, 57, 834-841. (14) Strasters, J. K.; Khaledi, M. G. Anal. Chem. 1991, 63, 2503-2508. (15) Jacquier, J. C.; Desbene, P. L. J. Chromatogr. A 1995, 718, 167-175. Anal. Chem. 1997, 69, 4271-4274 S0003-2700(97)00696-3 CCC: $14.00 1997 American Chemical Society Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 69, No. 20, October 15, 1997 4271 such a procedure are systematically lower than those obtained by other methods. 3 Probably due to the aforementioned problems, we have observed through literature that authors using CE apparatus use other instrumentation, e.g., surface tension apparatus, 16 conduc- timetric titration, 17,18 etc., to carry out determinations of cmc values when needed. However, according to Tickle et al., 19 it seems possible to determine in an easy way the cmc values of detergents by plotting the electrical current values, as measured by a CE instrument, versus the surfactant concentrations at agiven electric field. In this work, we discuss, validate, and extend the usefulness of this CE approach. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION Instrumentation. Measurements were carried out using a P/ ACE 5000 HPCE (Beckman Instruments Inc., Fullerton, CA) electrophoresis apparatus controlled by a Pentium 100 MHz personal computer. Two fused silica capillaries (Polymicro Technologies Inc., Phoenix, AZ) were employed. One, with 100 m i.d., 360 m o.d., and 27 cm of total length, was used to determine the cmc of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in water. For all the other experiments, a capillary with 75 m i.d., 360 m o.d., and 47 cm of total length was employed. The temperature of the capillary was maintained at 25 C. The electrical current data were collected and analyzed using System Gold software from Beckman running on the Pentium 100 MHz computer. As stated in the apparatus specifications provided by the manufacturer, the minimum detectable variation of the electric current was 0.1 A. Reagents. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), sodium chloride, and borax (sodium tetraborate decahydrate) were from E. Merck (Darmstadt, Germany). Acetonitrile was from Scharlau (Barce- lona, Spain). Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide(CTAB) was from EGA-Chemie (Steinheim, Germany), and -cyclodextrin was from Fluka (Madrid, Spain). Procedures. A 50 mM SDS solution was freshly prepared every day by dissolving the required amount of surfactant in Milli-Q water (Millipore Corp., Bedford, MA). Likewise, aqueous solutions of 5 mM CTAB, 20 mM -cyclodextrin, 40 mM borax, and 60 mM sodium chloride in Milli-Q water were also prepared. Final solutions were obtained by conveniently mixing and diluting these solutions. Cmc values were determined for both surfactants in the following media: CTAB in water, SDSin water, SDSin a 30 mM NaCl aqueous solution, SDSin a 10 mM -cyclodextrin aqueous solution, SDS in a 20 mM borax (pH 9.2) aqueous solution, and SDSin a 5 mM borax solution containing water-acetonitrile (85: 15 v/ v). In Table 1, voltages and capillaries dimensions employed are indicated for each case. These experimental conditions were chosen in order to obtain an adequate value of electric current, as will be discussed below. All determinations were done at 25 C. At least nine different concentrations of surfactant were monitored to determine the cmc value in each set of given conditions. Prior to measurement of the electric current, the capillary was consecutively rinsed with water and the new surfactant solution for 0.5 min. The high voltage was applied, and after waiting 1 min for equilibration of the CE system, the electric current was measured. THEORY It is well known that micellation of surfactants in aqueous mediaoccurs due to the fact that the reduction of the hydrocarbon- water interface is energetically favored. The critical micelle concentration at which aggregation takes place reflects that the hydrophobic interaction between the hydrocarbonaceous moieties of the surfactant molecules is balanced by the hydration and electrostatic repulsive effects of hydrophilic head groups. 20 Thus, hydrophobic forces control the formation of micelles, while electrostatic ones limit the maximum size (aggregation number) that micelles can reach under determined conditions. This equilibrium can be explained through a scheme similar to that used by Evans 21 in 1956. Assuming that the micelle is composed of nionic monomers or amphiphiles (S - ) and it carries mco-ions (e.g., Na + ) induced within the micelle, at concentration not greatly above the cmc, we can write (16) Piera, E.; Erra, P.; Infante, M. R. J. Chromatogr. A 1997, 757, 275-280. (17) Saitoh, K.; Kiyohara, C.; Suzuki, N. J. HighResolut. Chromatogr. 1991, 14, 245-248. (18) Terabe, S.; Katsura, T.; Okada, Y.; Ishihama, Y.; Otsuka, K. J. Microcolumn Sep. 1993, 5, 23-33. (19) Tickle, D. C.; Okafo, G. N.; Camilleri, P.; Jones, R. F. D.; Kirby, A. J. Anal. Chem. 1994, 66, 4121-4126. (20) Tanford, C. The Hydrophobic Effect: Formation of Micelles and Biological Membranes; Wiley: New York, 1980. (21) Evans, H. C. J. Chem. Soc. 1956, 579-586. Table 1. Cmc Values Determined by CE and Compared with Those Found in the Literature cmc a (mM) CE conditions CE results from least-squares fitting b CE literature refs SDSin water 75 m i.d., 47 cm; 20 kV 1170c+ 0.90, r 2 ) 0.9996 8.3 8.1-8.4 3, 32 530.5c+ 6.21, r 2 ) 0.996 CTAB in water 100 m i.d., 27 cm; 20 kV 6200c+ 0.45, r 2 ) 0.9997 0.93 0.90-0.98 3, 33 1500c+ 4.80, r 2 ) 0.998 SDS+ 20 mM borax 75 m i.d., 47 cm; 15 kV 577.1c+ 43.55, r 2 ) 0.975 3.1 2.6-3.2 17, 28 411c+ 44.06, r 2 ) 0.995 SDS+ 10 mM -cyclodextrin 75 m i.d., 47 cm; 20 kV 1159.1c+ 0.08, r 2 ) 0.9996 14.8 14.0-16.0 25-27 505c+ 9.73, r 2 ) 0.9993 SDS+ 30 mM NaCl 75 m i.d., 47 cm; 20 kV 950c+ 52.13, r 2 ) 0.9991 3.6 2.9-3.7 3, 28 350c+ 54.30, r 2 ) 1 SDS+ 5 mM borax + 15%acetonitrile 75 m i.d., 47 cm; 20 kV 1566.1c+ 18.26, r 2 ) 0.9999 7.3 7.7 28 1367.9c+ 19.71, r 2 ) 0.9992 a All determinations were done at 25 C. b r is the correlation coefficient of the equation i ) Bc + A, where i is the electric current (A) and c the surfactant concentration (mol/ L). The first equation applies for c < cmc and the second one for c > cmc, respectively. 4272 Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 69, No. 20, October 15, 1997 This equilibrium shows that, at concentration of surfactant c >cmc, amphiphiles are mainly in amicellar form, i.e., nmolecules of surfactant plus mco-ions will aggregate to form amicelle, while at c< cmc, surfactant will be in amonomeric form, moving freely in solution in a way similar to that of co-ions at these low concentrations. On the other hand, in a CE instrument, applying a voltage V on a capillary of radius r and total length l, filled with a surfactant solution, gives an electric current I according to Ohms law: 22 where Na +, S -, and mic are the specific conductivities of the co- ion, amphiphile, and micelle, respectively. It can be easily deduced from the equilibrium shown above that, at c< cmc, the main contribution to the overall conductivity of the solution comes from Na + and S -, while at c> cmc, the main contribution comes from mic , with alownumber of co-ions, e.g., sodium, moving freely in solution at these high concentrations. 21 The observed decrease in conductivity of solutions of ionic surfactants above the cmc is explained through both inclusion within the micelle of ions of charge opposite (co-ions) to that of amphiphiles 21 and the increase in resistance to migration of the micelle caused by the ionic atmosphere of co-ions surrounding this ordered structure. 23 Thus, in CE, by plotting electric current against different surfactant concentrations at a given voltage, experimental points must fit into two lines whose slopes should be different depending on the range of cconsidered. 19 That is, the two slopes correspond to the monomeric and micellar states of the surfactant. By employing simple mathematical procedures as usually applied for the determination of cmc in other methods, 3 it will be possible to calculate such avalue. In our case, the cmc values were calculated from the intersection point of two straight lines, whose equations were calculated by the linear least-squares method. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In Figure 1A, the plot of the electric current values obtained for different concentrations of SDSin water at 25 C is shown. As expected, experimental points fit into two straight lines of different slope whose values are given in Table 1, i.e., 1170 at c < cmc versus 530.5 at c > cmc. As can be seen in Figure 1A, this variation of slope takes place at a SDSconcentration of 8 mM. Such variation is originated by the conductivity change brought about by the micelle formation, that concentration (or range of concentrations 3 ) being the cmc value. In order to give a more precise value of cmc, the procedure explained under Theory was applied. The experimental data appearing too close to the cmc value, indicated by filled squares in Figure 1, were not included in the cmc calculations, as recommended by Mukerjee and Mysels. 3 The intersection point of the two straight lines, i.e., the cmc values of SDS in water at 25 C, gave a c value equal to 8.3 mM by this procedure. As can be deduced from Table 1, this value is very close to those found in the literature, i.e., from 8.1 to 8.4 mM, depending on the authors, which seems to indicate the usefulness of the present procedure. Similar representation was obtained when the electric current was plotted versus different concentrations of CTAB in water at 25 C, and these results are also given in Table 1. In this case, the intersection point of the two straight lines gave a cmc value equal to 0.93 mM, which is in good agreement with those values found in the literature under the same conditions, i.e., 0.90-0.98 mM. The versatility of this CE procedure can be easily under- stood with the CTAB example, as is discussed next. For determining the cmc of CTAB, the capillary of 75 m i.d. and 47 cm length used in the previous case was substituted by one of 100 m i.d. and 27 cm of length. This was done because CTAB solutions were of very low concentration, ranging from 0.2 to 1.6 mM. Their low conductivity, together with the high electrical resistance of the 75 m i.d. capillary employed, resulted in a very low electric current. Namely, under an electric field of 42 kV/ m, avariation in the CTAB concentration from 1.2 to 1.6 mM induced a current variation as small as 0.2 A. Such a value is too close to the minimum current variation detected by the CE instrument used, i.e., 0.1 A. Moreover, by applying the highest electric field provided by the instrument, 64 kV/ m under these conditions, the (22) Foret, F.; Krivankova, L.; Bocek, P. In CapillaryZoneElectrophoresis; Radola, B. J., Ed.; VCH: Weinheim, 1993; pp 7-15. (23) Hunter, T. J. Zeta Potential in Colloid Science: Principleand Applications; Academic Press: London, 1981; pp 98-112. nNaSf nNa + + nS - a (S n Na m ) (n-m)- + (n - m)Na + V ) l r 2 ( Na + + S - + mic ) I Figure 1. Plots of electric current vs concentration of SDS under different conditions. Fused silica capillary: 75 m i.d. and 47 cm length. Temperature was kept at 25 C. Conditions: (A) SDS in water; current measured at 20 kV. (B) SDS + 10 mM -cyclodextrin; current measured at 20 kV. (C) SDS + 5 mM borax + 15% acetonitrile; current measured at 25 kV. Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 69, No. 20, October 15, 1997 4273 variation of electric current observed was only 0.3 A. These two low values of electric current reduced substantially the sensitivity of the method since concentration steps smaller than 0.3-0.4 mM CTAB were avoided. Therefore, in order to increase the sensitivity of our system, a shorter capillary with 100 m i.d. was employed. This capillary allowed us to work with smaller concentration steps. Namely, for the same increase in concentra- tion as above (1.2-1.6 mM) and the same electric field of 42 kV/ m, a variation of 0.6 A was measured. Besides the possibility to manipulate the sensitivity of this method by choosing the adequate capillary size, the high voltage applied can also be selected to improve the sensitivity of the method. However, in this case, systematic errors can arise from the increase in temperature of the solvent due to the Joule effect if heat is not properly dissipated. 24 In our case, to overcome this problem, the power generated in the capillary was always kept below 2 W/ m, even when, according to the instruments specifica- tions, it was able to dissipate up to 5 W/ m. Figure 1B shows the plot obtained when the electric current was represented against aqueous solutions containing different concentrations of SDSplus 10 mM -cyclodextrin. The cmc value of SDScalculated at the intersection of the two straight lines given in Table 1 was 14.8 mM. This value also agrees quite well with those found in the literature, i.e., 14.0-16.0 mM. Further, by comparing the cmc value obtained, 14.8 mM, with that for SDS in water, 8.3 mM, it can be deduced that -cyclodextrin shifts the cme of SDS to higher values. This effect has already been studied, 11,25-27 and it is explained through the inclusion of SDS monomers into the cavity of -cyclodextrin following an ap- proximately 1:1 stoichiometry. Therefore, this procedure would allow one to determine the cmc of the surfactant in MEKCbuffers in some enantiomeric separations where surfactant and cyclodex- trin are contained in the buffer. This knowledge can help to optimize the separation conditions, as well as to carry out CE thermodynamic studies 18 or any other investigation 3,16 for which the cmc value is required. When the electric current was measured for solutions contain- ing different concentrations of SDS plus 5 mM borax and 15% acetonitrile, the plot shown in Figure 1C was obtained. As can be seen, under these conditions, the change in slope is not as abrupt as that observed in the other two cases, i.e., 1566.1 versus 1367.9, as given in Table 1. This is probably due to the denaturing effect of acetonitrile on micelles, which has been demonstrated to bring about the generation of small surfactant-solvent mixed aggregates. 28 This effect is typically explained through the multiple equilibria model, 29 also called the stepwise aggregation model. 30 Therefore, the change in conductivity or electric current is lower than that observed for the previous cases. Although, under these conditions, to refer to cmc value is not very rigorous, the cmc value was calculated for comparative purposes. From Figure 1C, a value of 7.3 mM was obtained. This value is slightly lower than SDSin water and similar to the value of 7.7 mM found in the literature for the same conditions. We have also included in Table 1 the results obtained for the determination of the cmc of SDSin aqueous solutions containing 20 mM borax (pH 9.2) or 30 mM NaCl. As can be seen, under these conditions, there is also a good agreement between the CE results and those reported in the literature, which seems to corroborate the applicability of this method for cmc determina- tions. Further, some other possibilities derived from the use of aCE instrument to determine cmc values should be mentioned. For instance, compared to traditional conductimetry measurements, the CE procedure would allow the study in an easy way of the influence of temperature on cmc values based on the good temperature control provided by the CE instruments. Moreover, it can also permit determination of cmc values in an unattended mode, while the volume of surfactant required (and additives if any) for each measurement is much smaller than that normally needed in traditional conductimetry. Besides, unlike other CE procedures, 13-15 the present method for determining cmc values does not require dyes nor separations. However, although the method involving electrical conductance is the preferred method for determining the cmc, and far more accurate results have been reported using this method than any other, 31 the method is limited to ionic surfactants. It also presents limitations for measurements carried out in highly conductive solutions. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported by the Commission of the European Communities (Training and Mobility of Researchers, Contract No. ERBFMBICT950003) and by aDGICYT project (PB94-02818-C02- C02). The authors thank Dr. F. Ortega, Physical Chemistry Department, Complutense University (Madrid, Spain), for fruitful discussion. Received for review July 1, 1997. Accepted July 10, 1997. X AC970696N (24) Cifuentes, A.; Kok, W.; Poppe, H. J. Microcolumn Sep. 1995, 7, 365-372. (25) Aman, E. S.; Serve, D. J. Colloid InterfaceSci. 1990, 138, 365-375. (26) Georges, J.; Desmettre, S. J. Colloid InterfaceSci. 1987, 118, 192-197. (27) Palepu, R.; Reinsborough, V. C. Can. J. Chem. 1988, 66, 325-332. (28) Jacquier, J. C.; Desbene, P. L. J. Chromatogr. A 1996, 743, 307-314. (29) Lindman, B. In Surfactants; Tadros, Th.F., Ed.; Academic Press: London, 1984; p 83. (30) Kertes, A. S. In Micellation, Solubilization, andMicroemulsions; Mittal, K. L., Ed.; Plenum Press: New York, 1977; Vol. 1, p 445. (31) Osipow, L. I. SurfaceChemistry, TheoryandIndustrial Application; Reinhold Publishing: New York, 1962. (32) Aniansson, E. A. G.; Wall, S. 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