Critical micelle concentration

In colloidal and surface chemistry, the critical micelle concentration (CMC) is defined as the concentration of surfactants above which micelles form and almost all additional surfactants added to the system go to micelles.

The CMC is an important characteristic of a surfactant. Before reaching the CMC, the surface tension changes strongly with the concentration of the surfactant. After reaching the CMC, the surface tensions remains relatively constant or changes with a lower slope. The value of the CMC for a given dispersant in a given medium depends on temperature, pressure, and (sometimes strongly) on the presence and concentration of other surface active substances and electrolytes. Micelles only form above critical micelle temperature.

For example, the value of CMC for sodium dodecyl sulfate in water (no other additives or salts) at 25 °C, atmospheric pressure, is 8x10-3 mol/L.

The study of the aggregation of lipids (amphiphiles) is known as lipid polymorphism.

Description
Upon introduction of surfactants (or any surface active materials) into the system, they will initially partition into the interface, reducing the system free energy by:


 * 1) lowering the energy of the interface (calculated as area times surface tension), and
 * 2) removing the hydrophobic parts of the surfactant from contact with water.

Subsequently, when the surface coverage by the surfactants increases and the surface free energy (surface tension) decreases and the surfactants start aggregating into micelles, thus again decreasing the system's free energy by decreasing the contact area of hydrophobic parts of the surfactant with water. Upon reaching CMC, any further addition of surfactants will just increase the number of micelles (in the ideal case).

There are several theoretical definitions of CMC. One well-known definition is that CMC is the total concentration of surfactants under the conditions:


 * if C = CMC, (d3F/dCt3) = 0


 * F = a[micelle] + b[monomer]: function of surfactant solution


 * Ct: total concentration


 * a, b: proportional constants

The CMC generally depends on the method of measuring the samples, since a and b depend on the properties of the solution such as conductance and photochemical characteristics. When the degree of aggregation is monodisperse, then the CMC is not related to the method of measurement. On the other hand, when the degree of aggregation is polydisperse, then CMC is related to both the method of measurement and the dispersion.

The CMC is the concentration of surfactants in the bulk at which micelles start forming. The word bulk is important because surfactants partition between the bulk and interface and CMC is independent of interface and is therefore a characteristic of the surfactant molecule. In most situations, such as surface tension measurements or conductivity measurements, the amount of surfactant at the interface is negligible compared to that in the bulk and CMC can be approximated by the total concentration.

There are important situations where interfacial areas are large and the amount of surfactant at the interface cannot be neglected. For example if we take a solution of a surfactant above CMC and start introducing air bubbles at the bottom of the solution, these bubbles, as they rise to the surface, pull out the surfactants from the bulk to the top of the solution creating a foam column thus bringing down the concentration in bulk to below CMC. This is one of the easiest methods to remove surfactants from effluents (foam flotation). Thus in foams with sufficient interfacial area there will not be any micelles. Similar reasoning holds for emulsions.

The other situation arises in detergency. One initially starts off with concentrations greater than CMC in water and on adding fabric with large interfacial area and waiting for equilibrium, the surfactant concentration goes below CMC and no micelles are left. Therefore the solubilization plays a minor role in detergency. Removal of oily soil occurs by modification of the contact angles and release of oil in the form of emulsion.