The density, sound velocity, and conductivity measurements were performed on aqueous solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate (C12H25SO4Na) or sodium dodecyl sulfonate (C12H25SO3Na) in the absence and presence of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) at different temperatures. Changes in the apparent molar volumes and isentropic compressibilities upon micellization were derived using a pseudophase-transition approach and the infinite dilution apparent molar properties of the monomer and micellar form of C12H25SO4Na and C12H25SO3Na were determined. Variations of the critical micelle concentrations (CMCs) of both surfactants in the solutions investigated with temperature were obtained from which thermodynamic parameters of micellization were estimated. It was found that at low temperature the micelle formation process is endothermic and therefore, this process must be entropically driven. However, upon increasing the temperature, the enthalpic factor becomes more significant and, at temperatures higher than 303.15 K the micellization is enthalpy driven. The interactions between C12H25SO4Na/C12H25SO3Na and PEG were studied and it was found that sodium alkyl sulfonates were seen to interact more weakly than their sulfate analogues.
