On the use of Titration Calorimetry to Study the Association of Surfactants in Aqueous Solutions

Isothermal titration calorimetry is increasingly becoming a common tool for the investigation of surfactant association processes. This can be associated with the development of new, sensitive and easy-to-operate commercial equipment, allied with the advantage of producing simultaneous information on the main thermodynamic parameters associated with the process under investigation. However, a significant fraction of users are still unfamiliar with many aspects related with the use of these calorimetric techniques. This review intends to discuss the design of experiments to investigate surfactant self-assembly in water and in the presence of polymers ( charged and uncharged), as well as on how to derive the most relevant thermodynamic parameters from these calorimetric titration curves. Some literature examples are discussed to illustrate the use of these techniques for different systems.