We show that electrostatic effects have a dramatic influence on thermal diffusion of charged micelles. In the dilute regime, the Soret coefficient strongly decreases with the solution ionic strength, and scales as the square of the Debye-Hückel length. Yet, collective effects yield a reversed scenario even at fairly low surfactant concentration. We find that single-particle behavior can be explained using an interfacial tension mechanism proposed by Ruckenstein, which also fairly accounts for collective effects and opens the way to a general picture of thermal diffusion in disperse systems.

• Received 28 February 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.208302