ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the application of fluorescence techniques to study polymer/surfactant systems, discusses the various methods and materials in use. It considers the use of low molecular weight fluorescence probes to measure the critical aggregation concentration and the surfactant aggregation number of polymer-surfactant complexes and to characterize the microenvironment within the complexes. The chapter deals exclusively with the association of fluorescently labelled polymers and surfactants. It dedicates to a description of selected recent investigations, with particular emphasis on the study of the complexes formed between surfactants and hydrophobically-modified polymers. Changes in micropolarity are the basis of most photophysical techniques applied to detect the onset of polymer/surfactant interactions. The probes must exhibit in their emission spectrum some feature strongly dependent on solvent polarity. The ratio of pyrene excimer to monomer emission intensities has been used to follow the interactions of surfactants with labelled polyelectrolytes, neutral water-soluble polymers, and hydrophobically-modified polymers.
