The CMCs of sodium alkyl sulfates at fall roughly linearly in CMC with tail length

PHYSICS · Subjective · Fermi University Physics · Condensed Matter, Materials & Soft Matter · Soft condensed matter · Soft condensed matter

Soft Matter at the Thermal Scale, Ch Amphiphiles and self-assembly

Problem

The CMCs of sodium alkyl sulfates at 298 K298\,\mathrm{K} fall roughly linearly in log⁡10\log_{10}CMC with tail length, by about 0.30.3 per additional CH2\mathrm{CH_2}: the tetradecyl (C14C_{14}) homologue has a CMC of 2.1 mM2.1\,\mathrm{mM}. Estimate the CMC of the octadecyl (C18C_{18}) homologue, which has four more tail carbons.

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