The temperature dependence of the micellisation of chlorpromazine hydrochloride in aqueous solution

The association characteristics of the weakly associating drug chlorpromazine hydrochloride have been examined over the temperature range 10–35 °C by means of conductimetric measurements. Critical micelle concentrations (cmc) have been determined by the application of a recently developed numerical method [Pérez-Rodríguez et al. (1998) Langmuir 14:4422] especially designed for the analysis of the association pattern in highly polydisperse systems of low aggregation number. The cmcs determined in this manner are used in combination with the mass-action model to obtain the thermodynamic parameters of the micellisation process, in particular the surface and hydrophobic contributions to the free energy. The use of exact forms of equations for the thermodynamics of micellisation applicable to systems of low aggregation number leads to values of the enthalpy of micellisation in reasonable agreement with experimentally determined values.