Partitioning and reorientational dynamics of phenylalcohols in SDS lyotropic liquid crystalline mesophases: An ALC-μSR study

Avoided level crossing muon spin resonance (ALC-μSR) has been applied to monitor location and reorientational dynamics of two different sets of muoniated cyclohexadienyl radicals derived from 3-phenylpropan-1-ol and 5-phenylpentan-1-ol as tracer molecules in SDS–water–pentanol ternary mixtures and in SDS–water–pentanol–dodecane quaternary systems. The present results show a dependence of the phenylalcohol partitioning on the environment polarity and on the structure of the SDS dispersions. Both radicals tend to be incorporated within the mesophases at 25 °C. The low polarity sensed by the tracer molecule indicates that among all mesophases these species are immersed the deepest in the sponge phase. Alternatively, the effect could be explained by a dependence of the water gradient in the surfactant layer on the overall water versus hydrocarbon content of a system. The changing amplitudes, widths and shapes of the Δ1 resonances reveal a different extent of dynamics of three isomers of the muoniated 3-phenylpropan-1-ol radical in particular mesophases. The most extensive dynamics occurs in the hexagonal phase. The probe molecule chain length and the fractions of pentanol and dodecane are additional factors that affect partitioning.