In contrast to non-ionic C12E6, the use of cationic cetrimonium bromide (CTAB) and anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactants inhibited catalytic turnover, with no CO detected after equivalent measurements screening from 1 to 18-fold their nominal critical micelle concentrations (CMCs) of 1.0 and 7.8 mM for CTAB and SDS in pure water, Contrastingly, no degradation of RubpyC17 is observed when using CTAB or SDS surfactants within the timescale of the experiments (Fig ), indicating that the ionic surfactants are inhibiting catalysis by preventing formation of long-lived reduced Ru states that are the most vulnerable to degradation.