Abstract:

Vitamin C is found to show hydrotrope action and enhance the aqueous solubility of surfactant CTAB it also show the hydrotrope-solubilization action to increase the solubilzed amount of n-C5H11OH in O/W microemulsion and that of water in W/O microemulsion. Both action of VC are selective so that they can only be effective in cationic surfactant CTAB system. The mechanism of the hydrotrope-solubilization action of VC is in fact to increase the stability of W/O and O/W microemusion and the structural transition from the lamellar liquid crystal phase to the bicontinuous structure.

Key words: Vitamin C, Hydrotrope, Hydrotrope-solubilization, Microemulsion, Lamellar liqued crystal