Effect of Urea on the Kinetics of the Alkaline Hydrolysis of Crystal Violet Catalyzed by Aqueous Micellar Solutions of Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide

Kinetics of alkaline hydrolysis of crystal violet (CV) in micellar solutions of a cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), both in absence and presence of urea was investigated. The reaction was catalyzed by micelles of CTAB and addition of urea caused a gradual decrease in the rate of the reaction. Kinetic results could be correlated with change in micellization behavior of CTAB by water structure breaking effect of urea. The kinetic profiles have been fitted with the simulated profiles on the basis of pseudophase ion-exchange model and best fits with reasonable parameters could be obtained.