First Fluorinated Zwitterionic Micelle with Unusually Slow Exchange in an Ionic Liquid

The micellization of a fluorinated zwitterionic surfactant in ethylammonium nitrate (EAN) was investigated. The freeze-fracture transmission electron microscope (FF-TEM) observations confirm the formation of spherical micelles with the average diameter 25.45 ± 3.74 nm. The micellization is an entropy-driven process at low temperature but an enthalpy-driven process at high temperature. Two sets of 19F NMR signals above the critical micelle concentration (cmc) indicate that the unusually slow exchange between micelles and monomers exists in ionic liquid; meanwhile, surfactant molecules are more inclined to stay in micelle states instead of monomer states at higher concentration. Through the analysis of the half line width (Δν1/2), we can obtain the kinetic information of fluorinated zwitterionic micellization in an ionic liquid.