Formation and Fluorimetric Characterization of Micelles in a Micro-flow Through System with Static Micro Mixer

The formation and behaviour of micelles of sodium dodecylsulfate in water by use of a static micro mixer were studied. Trisbipyridylruthenium(II) was applied as indicator dye, 9-methylanthracene was used for fluorescence quenching. All experiments were carried out by a micro fluid arrangement with three syringe pumps, a 2+1 two-step static micro mixer (IPHT Jena) and a on-line micro fluorimetry including a luminescence diode for excitation, a blue glass filter (BG 7, Linos), two edge filters (RG 630, Linos) and a photo counting module (MP 900, Perkin Elmer). It was possible to measure the fluorescence inside the PTFE tube (inner diameter 0.5 mm) directly. A linear dependence of fluorescence intensity from dye concentration was observed in absence of quencher and surfactant as expected. An aggregation number of about 62 was found in the flow rate range between 300 and 800 μL/min. The fluorescence intensity increases slightly, but significant with increasing flow rate, if no quencher is present. In the presence of quencher, the fluorescence intensity decreases with decreasing surfactant concentration and with enhanced flow rate. The strength of the flow rate effect on the fluorescence increases with decreasing surfactant concentration. The size of micelles was determined in micro channels by the micro fluorimetric method in analogy to the conventional system. The micelles extract the quencher from the solution and lower, this way, the quenching effect. The size of micelles was estimated and it could be shown, that the flow rate has only low effect on the aggregation number at the investigated flow rates. The effect of flow rate and surfactant concentration on the fluorescence in the presence of quencher was interpreted as a shift in the micelle concentration due to the shear forces. It is expected, that the fluorescence intensity is lowered, if more quencher molecules are molecular disperse distributed inside the solution. Obviously, the lowered fluorescence intensity at higher flow rates suggests a reduction of the micelle density causing an increase of quencher concentration outside the micelles.