Photodegradation and electrolytic behaviour investigations of cationic amphiphiles based self-assembled non-aqueous layered lamellar interfaces

Binary mixtures of varying concentrations comprised of cetylpyridinium chloride/formamide are prepared via a self-assembly process. Polarizing optical microscopy analysis reveals that all the binary mixture exhibits lamellar layered mesophase. Lamellar phases are explored for the degradation of the acid red-18 (AR18) and direct green-6 (DG-6) dyes under ultraviolet dark conditions, light (UV) irradiation, and photolysis. The concentrations of the used dyes are fixed at 0.001% and 0.01% for degradation experiments. Higher dye degradation efficiency ~94% and ~88% is obtained for lamellar phases (C5) contain a higher content of amphiphiles doped with AR18 and DG6 (0.001%). A probable dye degradation mechanism may be attributed to the attractive electrostatic pull caused by the excited pyridinium ring (NH + bond) of cetylpyridinium chloride which may break N=N bond (chromophore group) of the dye molecule. Pure and dye-doped lamellar phases demonstrate high ionic conductivity in the range of 5.37 to 14.64 mS/cm. The studied lamellar mesophase shows weak electrolytic behaviour as computed from Kohlrausch’s law and the degree of the dissociation parameter value. These phases can be seen as potential candidates for photocatalytic and electrolytic applications.