Electrochemical methodology as an useful tool for the interfacial characterization of aqueous reverse micelles

Abstract

In this work, for the first time, the electrochemical behavior of hydroquinone (H2Q) by linear voltammetry in aqueous reverse micelles (RMs) of sodium 1,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT)/n-heptane, as well in homogenous media at different pH values, were studied. The choice of this molecular probe is because of its electrochemical response in water, strongly depend on the pH value thus, our goal is to know more about an intriguing issue in the soft matter field, what is the pH value for water encapsulated in the water pool of AOT RMs. Our work will demonstrate that the interfacial apparent pH value of AOT RMs is not strongly acidic as some of the literature works claim, but it is around a pH value of 6.7. Thus, through the electrochemistry technique, the present work reinforces the idea that the concept of is strongly dependent on the water-interface interactions and the molecular probe location.