Micellar effects on the reaction between an arenediazonium ion and the antioxidants gallic acid and octyl gallate

The effect of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles on the reaction between the 3-methylbenzenediazonium (3MBD) ion and either the hydrophilic antioxidant gallic acid (GA) or the hydrophobic analogue octyl gallate (OG) have been investigated as a function of pH. Titration of GA in the absence and presence of SDS micelles showed that the micelles do not alter the first ionization equilibrium of GA. Analysis of the dependence of the observed rate constant (k_obs) with pH shows that the reactive species are GA²⁻ and OG⁻. Kinetics results in the absence and presence of SDS micelles suggest that SDS aggregates do not alter the expected reaction pathway. SDS Micelles inhibit the spontaneous decomposition of 3MBD as well as the reaction between 3MBD and either GA or OG, and upon increasing the SDS concentration, with k_obs approaching the value for the thermal decomposition of 3MBD in the presence of SDS. Our results are consistent with the prediction of the pseudophase model and show that the origin of the inhibition for the reaction with GA is different to that for the reaction with OG; in the former case, the observed inhibition can be rationalized in terms of the micelle-induced electrostatic separation of reactants in the micellar Stern layer, whereas the observed inhibition in the reaction with OG is a consequence of the dilution effect caused by increasing SDS concentration, decreasing the local OG⁻ concentration in the Stern layer.