Impact of the Long Cationic Chain in CTAB Surfactant on Solvated Electron Dynamics

This study investigates the generation of hydrated electrons by the well-known surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAB) using short UV pulses and probing in the visible region. To assess the observed dynamics, we benchmark our findings against sodium iodide (NaI), a commonly used model for studying hydrated electrons due to its simple structure. The results indicate that while CTAB exhibits similar behavior to NaI, the formation of the compact pair state in CTAB is significantly less active compared to NaI. This reduced formation leads to a noticeable delay in the generation of separated species, a process that occurs more efficiently in the NaI system. Our findings provide valuable insights into utilizing CTAB as an internal probe to understand electron transfer processes at water-oil interfaces better.