Effect of Bolaform Counterions on the Adsorption of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfonate at the Air/Water Interface

Partition and Solubilization of Phospholipid Vesicles by Noncovalently Constructed Oligomeric-like Surfactants

This work has investigated the interaction of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) vesicles with oligomeric surfactants noncovalently formed by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and a series of polyamines, 1,3-diaminopropane (PDA), triamine, spermidine, and spermine. The partition coefficients (P) of these surfactants between lipid bilayers and the aqueous phase are measured by isothermal titration microcalorimetry (ITC), showing that the P value increases and the Gibbs free energy of the partition becomes more negative with increasing oligomerization degree of the surfactants. This changing trend is similar to that of synthetic oligomeric surfactants regardless of the charge properties, suggesting that the polyamine and SDS molecules interact with the DOPC bilayer simultaneously. Meanwhile, the DOPC solubilization by these surfactants is evaluated by the effective surfactant-to-lipid molar ratios for the onset (R_e^sat) and end (R_e^sol) of the solubilization process, which are determined from the phase boundaries obtained by ITC, turbidity, and dynamic light scattering measurements. With the increment of oligomerization degree, the R_e^sat and R_e^sol values increase anomalously and are much larger than those of the synthetic surfactants with the same oligomerization degree, suggesting that noncovalently constructed oligomeric surfactants exhibit lower solubilization ability to phospholipid vesicles than the corresponding covalent oligomeric surfactants. Therefore, the noncovalently constructed oligomeric-like surfactants facilitate strong partition but weak solubilization to phospholipid vesicles, which may provide a useful strategy to mildly adjust the permeation and fluidity of phospholipid vesicles with solubilization delay.

Effects of length and hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of diamines on self-assembly of diamine/SDS gemini-like surfactants

This work studied gemini-like surfactants formed from anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and cationic charged bola-type diamines with hydrophilic or hydrophobic spacers of different lengths using surface tension, small angle neutron scattering, isothermal titration microcalorimetry and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy. The critical micelle concentrations (CMC) and the surface tension at CMC (γ_CMC) for all the diamine/SDS mixtures are markedly lower than that of SDS. The shorter diamines reduce γ_CMC to a greater extent regardless of the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of the diamines. Meanwhile, either the hydrophobic diamine with a longer spacer or the hydrophilic diamine with a shorter spacer is more beneficial to decrease CMC and leads to the transition from spherical micelles into rodlike or wormlike micelles. This is principally because of the formation of gemini-like surfactants by the electrostatic binding between SDS and the diamines, where the electrostatic repulsion between the adjacent headgroups of SDS becomes much weaker due to the electrostatic binding of oppositely charged diamine with SDS, and the longer hydrophobic spacer may also bend into the hydrophobic domain of micelles to promote micellar growth. However, the hydrophilic spacers are more compatible with the headgroup region, leading to micelles with a larger curvature. This work contributes to the understanding of the relationship between the properties of constructed gemini-like surfactants and the natures of connecting molecules, and provides guidance to efficiently improve the performance of surfactants.

Aggregation of Oligomeric Surfactant Constructed by Four-Armed Carboxylic Acid Sodium and Cationic Surfactant

A star-shaped oligomeric-like surfactant with variable oligomeric degrees has been formed with a four-arm carboxylate salt (4EOCOONa) and cationic single chain surfactant dodecyl trimethylammonium bromide (DTAB). The aggregation of the 4EOCOONa/(DTAB)_n complexes has been investigated by surface tension, electrical conductivity, isothermal titration microcalorimetry, ζ potential, dynamic light scattering, ¹H NMR spectroscopy, and steady-state fluorescence measurements. The calorimetric result shows that 4EOCOONa interacts strongly with DTAB and each 4EOCOONa molecule binds with six DTAB molecules, wherein four DTAB molecules electrostatically bind to one 4EOCOONa molecule and additional two DTAB molecules further bind to the 4EOCOONa/(DTAB)_n complex by hydrophobic interaction. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the 4EOCOONa/(DTAB)_n complexes is remarkably lower than the CMC of DTAB, similar to synthesized star-shaped oligomeric surfactants. The micelle properties of the DTAB/4EOCOONa mixtures depend on the component changes of the 4EOCOONa/(DTAB)_n complexes. By increasing the DTAB/4EOCOONa molar ratio and/or concentration, the DTAB/4EOCOONa mixtures gradually form the complexes of 4EOCOO(DTA)₁^3-, 4EOCOO(DTA)₂^2-, 4EOCOO(DTA)₃^-, 4EOCOO(DTA)₄, and 4EOCOO(DTA)₆²⁺, and the corresponding aggregates are small anionic micelles with loose molecular packing, and nearly nonionic or positively charged small micelles with more compact packing. Moreover, the positive charge of the small micelles increases with the increase of the concentration and the DTAB/4EOCOONa molar ratio. Therefore, constructing oligomeric-like surfactants by adding appropriate organic salts into conventional surfactants is a convenient method to achieve desired properties of surfactant aggregates.

Facile construction of gemini-like surfactants at the interface and their effects on the interfacial tension of a water/model oil system

Gemini-like surfactants were fabricated by combining sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate and butane-1,4-bis(methylimidazolium bromide) at the interface and evaluated for their ability to reduce the interfacial tension between water and a model oil.

Effect of siloxane spacer length on organosilicon bi-quaternary ammonium amphiphiles

A series of organosilicon Bola-form bi-quaternary ammonium amphiphiles, [OH5C3(C2H5)2N+-(CH2)3-Si(CH2)3-O-(Si(CH3)2O)n-Si(CH2)3⋯(CH2)3-N+(C2H5)2C3H5O]Cl2- (SinN2Cl2, n=0, 4, 6, 8), with the same headgroups and different length of hydrophobic linkage has been synthesized. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of each amphiphiles was determined by equilibrium surface tension. With the increased length of hydrophobic siloxane spacer, the CMC values follow the order of Si8N2Cl2<Si6N2Cl2<Si4N2Cl2<Si0N2Cl2. At the same time, thermodynamic parameters (ΔGm0, ΔHm0, ΔSm0) of micellization were calculated by Gibbs equation under the mass action model. It indicates that the micellization of the amphiphiles in aqueous solution is entropy-driven. Especially, the surface area (Amin) of Si4N2Cl2 is the largest attributing to the interaction of free-rotated siloxane spacer and its internal oxygen atom, which make the molecular stretch free. The antimicrobial property of Si4N2Cl2 is more effective than others below the concentration of CMC, while the antimicrobial property of Si8N2Cl2 is more effective above the concentration of CMC, which indicated that both the adsorbability in formation of micellar and the hydrophobicity arising from the different length of siloxane spacer are important to inhibit microbe. Moreover, their wetting ability has been characterized by contact angles on various material surfaces. It shows that the higher weight of lipophilic siloxane spacer leads to lower contact angels.