Parameters affecting solubilization

Additional work in progress includes optimization of parameters affecting the oxalate precipitation step this includes determination of the chloride concentration required to solubilize lead the oxalate ion concentration required for maximum americium recovery with minimum impurity precipitation precipitate aging and hydrogen ion concentrations that will minimize americium solubility yet maximize impurity solubilization. 

In general, the digestion process has to be optimized to achieve maximum efficiency based on a number of parameters affecting the enzymatic reaction that include (i) solubilization and denaturation of proteins, (ii) reduction of disulfide bonds, (iii) alkylation of reduced cysteines, and (iv) digestion conditions. 

Solubilizate structure. Generalizations about the manner in which structure affects solubilization are complicated by the existence of different solubilization sites. The main parameters that may be considered when investigating solubi-Uzates are Polarity, polarizability, chain length and branching, molecular size and shape. The most significant effect is perhaps the polarity of the solubilizate and sometimes they are classified into polar and apolar however, difficulty exist with intermediate compounds. 

Finally, and apart from the importance of micelles in the solubilization of chemical species, mention should also be made of their intervention in the displacement of equilibria and in the modification of kinetics of reactions, as well as in the alteration of physicochemical parameters of certain ions and molecules that affect electrochemical measurements, processes of visible-ultraviolet radiation, fluorescence and phosphorescence emission, flame emission, and plasma spectroscopy, or in processes of extraction, thin-layer chromatography, or high-performance liquid chromatography [2-4, 29-33],... 

One of the most important characteristics of micelles is their ability to enclose all kinds of substances. Capture of these compounds in micelles is generally driven by hydrophobic, electrostatic and hydrogen-bonding interactions. The dynamics of solubilization into micelles are similar to those observed for entrance and exit of individual surfactant molecules, but the micelle-bound substrate will experience a reaction environment different from bulk water, leading to kinetic medium effects308. Hence, micelles are able to catalyse or inhibit reactions. The catalytic effect on unimolecular reactions can be attributed exclusively to the local medium effect. For more complicated bimolecular or higher-order reactions, the rate of the reaction is affected by an additional parameter the local concentrations of the reacting species in or at the micelle. 

The amount of water solubilized in a reverse micelle solution is commonly referred to as W, the molar ratio of water to surfactant, and this is also a good qualitative indicator of micelle size. This is an extremely important parameter since it will determine the number of surfactant molecules per micelle and is the main factor affecting micelle size. For an (AOT)/iso-octane/H20 system, the maximum Wq is around 60 [16], and above this value the transparent reverse micelle solution becomes a turbid emulsion, and phase separation may occur. The effect of salt type and concentration on water solubilization is important. Cations with a smaller hydration size, but the same ionic charge, result in less solubilization than cations with a large hydration size [17,18]. Micelle size depends on the salt type and concentration, solvent, surfactant type and concentration, and also temperature. 

There are very important factors that affect the interactions between molecules of solutes and solvents and explain solvent effects1. Simple solubilization of a compound in a solvent is possible if certain solute/solvent interactions take place. The usual general solvent2 parameters may be used to explain the physical and chemical behaviours of solutes, but often better explanations are obtained when specific interactions depending on the peculiarities of interacting molecules are considered3-5. 

Robinson, 1969a). It is probable that the hydrophobic nature of the phenyl groups of p-nitrophenyl diphenyl phosphate results in deep penetration of the neutral ester in the Stern layer, thus shielding the phosphoryl group from nucleophilic attack. Unlike other reactions between nucleophiles and neutral substrates catalyzed by cationic micelles (Bunton and Robinson, 1968, 1969a) and the hydrolysis of dinitrophenyl phosphate dianions in the presence of cationic micelles (Bunton et al., 1968), the catalysis of the hydrolysis of -nitrophenyl diphenyl phosphate by CTAB arises from an increase in the activation entropy rather than from a decrease in the enthalpy of activation. The Arrhenius parameters for the micelle-catalyzed and inhibited reactions are most probably manifestations of the extensive solubilization of this substrate. However, these parameters can be composites of those for the micellar and non-micellar reactions and the eifects of temperature on the micelles themselves are not known. Interpretation of the factors which affect these parameters must therefore be carried out with caution. In addition, the inhibition of the micelle-catalyzed reactions by added electrolytes has been observed (Bunton and Robinson, 1969a Bunton et al., 1969, 1970) and, as in the cases of other anion-molecule reactions and the heterolysis of dinitrophenyl phosphate dianions, can be reasonably attributed to the exclusion of the nucleophile by the anion of the added salt. 

It is clear from Equations (9.1) to (9.4) that the free energy of formation of a nucleus and the critical radius r, above which the cluster formation grows spontaneously, depend on two main parameters, namely a and (S/S ), both of which are influenced by the presence of surfactants, a is influenced in a direct way by the adsorption of surfactant onto the surface of the nucleus this adsorption lowers y and this in turn reduces r and AG in other words, spontaneous cluster formation will occur at a smaller critical radius. In addition, surfactant adsorption stabilises the nuclei against any flocculation. The presence of micelles in solution also affects the processes ofnucleation and growth, both directly and indirectly. For example, the micelles can act as nuclei on which growth may occur, and may also solubilize the molecules of the material this can affect the relative supersaturation and, in turn, may have an effect on nucleation and growth. 

Another possible extension is to consider an excess oil phase which is a mixtnre of two or more species. Provided that mixing within the micelle can still be considered ideal and that activity coefficients for all species in the bulk oil mixture are known, an expression for for each solnte is readily obtained. Micelles formed from surfactant mixtures can be treated provided that micelle composition is known or can be calculated from theories of mixed micelles such as regular solution theory and that solubilization is low enough not to affect micelle shape or composition. Finally, nonideal mixing in the micelles can be included if some model for the nonideality is available as well as data for evaluating the relevant parameters. Perhaps the simplest scheme for incorporating nonideality with nonpolar solutes is to use volume fractions instead of mole fractions in the spirit of Flory-Huggins theory. 

JVo is a key parameter which significantly affects the physical properties of AOT reversed micelles. In the case of an AOT/oil solution, discontinuity of several physical properties of the solubilized water is observed at IVg 10 [16]. Below IV 10, the water is bound to the AOT polar head-groups and counterions, and further addition of water leads to the appearance of free water in the core of the water pools. However, the state of the water in the AOT reversed micelles, especially below Wg 2, appears unusual. We found that the solution enthalpy of the water in AOT/various organic solvents solutions indicated a great change in the state of the solubilized water [17,18]. 

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