The synthetic flavylium salt 4-carboxy-7-hydroxy-4'-methoxyflavylium chloride (CHMF) exhibits two acid-base equilibria in the range of pH 1-8 in both aqueous and micellar sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solutions. The values of pK(a1) and pK(a2) for the cation-zwitterion (AH(2)(+) <-> Z + H+) and the zwitterion-base (Z <-> A(-) + H+) equilibria increase from 0.73 and 4.84 in water to 2.77 and 5.64 in SDS micelles, respectively. The kinetic study of the Z T A- + H+ ground-state reactions in SDS points to the diffusion-controlled protonation of A- in the aqueous phase (k(p2w) = 4.2 x 10(10) M-1 s(-1)) and in the micelle (k(p2m) = 2.3 x 10(11) M-1 s(-1)). The deprotonation rate of Z did not significantly change upon going from water (k(d2) = 6.3 x 10(5) s(-1)) to SDS (k(d2) = 5.2 x 10(5) s(-1)), in contrast with the behavior of ordinary cationic flavylium salts, for which k(d2) strongly decreases in SDS micelles. These results suggest that deprotonation of the zwitterionic acid is not substantially perturbed by the micellar charge. Electronic excitation of the Z form of CHMF induces fast adiabatic deprotonation of the hydroxyl group of Z* (2.9 x 10(10) s(-1) in water and 8.4 x 10(9) s(-1) in 0.1 M SDS), followed by geminate recombination on the picosecond time scale. Interestingly, while recombination in water (k(rec) = 1.7 x 10(9) s(-1)) occurs preferentially at the carboxylate group, at the SDS micelle surface, recombination (k(rec) = 9.2 x 10(9) s(-1)) occurs at the hydroxyl group. The important conclusion is that proton mobility at the SDS micelle surface is substantially reduced with respect to the mobility in water, which implies that geminate recombination should be a general phenomenon in SDS micelles.