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Zhao Z, Zhang L, Zhang H, Lu G, Meng T, Hao H, Zhang Y, Li J, Yan H. Computational Insights into a CO 2-Responsive Emulsion Prepared Using the Superamphiphile Assembled by Electrostatic Interactions. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2024; 40:938-949. [PMID: 38134444 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c03140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2023]
Abstract
The superamphiphiles exhibit broad prospects for fabricating stimuli-responsive emulsions. Because the superamphiphiles are assembled via noncovalent interactions, they have the advantage of fast response and high efficiency. Recently, a series of switchable emulsions using CO2-responsive superamphiphiles have been developed, which extends the applications of CO2-responsive materials in widespread field. However, there is still a lack of fundamental understanding on the switching mechanism related to the assembled structure of superamphiphiles at the oil-water interface. We employed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the reversible emulsification/demulsification process of a responsive emulsion system stabilized by a recently developed responsive superamphiphile (BTOA), which consists of oleic acid (OA) and cationic amine (named 1,3-bis(aminopropyl)tetramethyldisiloxane, BT). The simulation results present the morphologies in both the emulsion and demulsification states. It is found that the ionized OA- and the protonated BT+ together form an adsorption layer at the oil-water interface. The hydrophobic parts of BT+ are inserted into the adsorption layer, and the two amine groups contact the water phase. This adsorption layer reduces the interfacial tension and stabilizes the emulsion. After the bubbling of CO2, the surfactants were fully protonated to OA and BT2+. Because of the changes in the molecular polarity, OA and BT2+ entered the oil and water phases, respectively, resulting in demulsification. The structural and dynamical properties were analyzed to reveal the different intermolecular interactions that were responsible for the reversible reversibility of the emulsion. The observations are considered to be complementary to experimental studies and are expected to provide deeper insights into studies on developing responsive materials via supramolecular assemblies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhen Zhao
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, Shandong 252059, P. R. China
| | - Lu Zhang
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Energy Storage and Novel Cell Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, Shandong 252059, P. R. China
| | - Hao Zhang
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, Shandong 252059, P. R. China
| | - Guoqiang Lu
- Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical & Materials Engineering, Jiangnan University, No. 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi 214122, P. R. China
| | - Tong Meng
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, Shandong 252059, P. R. China
| | - Hongguo Hao
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Energy Storage and Novel Cell Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, Shandong 252059, P. R. China
| | - Yongmin Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical & Materials Engineering, Jiangnan University, No. 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi 214122, P. R. China
| | - Jun Li
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, Shandong 252059, P. R. China
| | - Hui Yan
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, Shandong 252059, P. R. China
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Fallah-Totkar H, Bagheri A, Maddah M. The correlation between the micelle morphology of surface-active ionic liquids with self-assembly and thermodynamic characteristics: coarse-grained MD simulation and experiment. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2023; 25:23164-23176. [PMID: 37605522 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp02126b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/23/2023]
Abstract
Surface-active ionic liquids (SAILs) show great promise as novel green solvents due to their low vapor pressure, high thermal stability, high electrical conductivity, and bio-friendly nature to replace traditional volatile organic solvents in industrial processes. In the present work, the combination of coarse-grained (CG) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with conductivity measurements was employed to explain the correlation between the micelle morphology and physicochemical and thermodynamic properties of self-assembly. A homologous series of SAIL molecules, 1-n-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide [Cnmim][Br] (n = 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12), were chosen at various concentrations to shed light on this issue. Simultaneously two factors of concentration and alkyl chain length affected the morphology to control the physical and thermodynamic features. Moreover, the nature of the headgroup for two SAILs with the longest alkyl chain was assessed by shifting from imidazolium into ammonium. First, the critical micelle concentration (CMC), the degree of counterion dissociation of micelles, and the standard Gibbs energy of micellization of SAILs were determined using conductivity data. The micelle morphology such as the aggregation number, micelle radius, and moment of inertia was computed before, around, and after the CMC by MD simulation. Simulated results in accordance with the experimental measurements provide a quantitative understanding of the micellar properties. Increasing the alkyl chain length was associated with a non-spherical bigger micelle while the ammonium-based surfactant with a lower repulsion between neighboring monomers in micelles induced bigger and more spherical aggregates. Raising the SAIL concentration did not considerably influence the sphericity of the micelle except for the SAIL with the longest tail. The umbrella sampling method calculated the potential of mean force (PMF) for pulling a monomer of SAIL from a pre-assembled micelle into the solution. The dissociation energy of a SAIL monomer from a micelle increased with the tail length or with shifting into the ammonium head group and was substantially influenced by micelle morphology. Comparison between a sphere micelle with an oval one demonstrated that the dissociation of a SAIL monomer from a non-spherical shape needed a higher amount of energy. An improved understanding of how the shape of the SAIL micelles controls the physicochemical properties and stability helps to extend their application to different chemical processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hajar Fallah-Totkar
- Department of Chemistry, Semnan University, P.O. Box 35131-19111, Semnan, Iran.
| | - Ahmad Bagheri
- Department of Chemistry, Semnan University, P.O. Box 35131-19111, Semnan, Iran.
| | - Mina Maddah
- Researcher of Semnan University, Semnan, 35131-19111, Iran
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Sharmila DJS, Lakshmanan A. Molecular dynamics study of plant bioactive nutraceutical keto-Curcumin encapsulated in medium chain triglyceride oil-in-Water nanoemulsion that are stabilized by globular whey proteins. J Mol Liq 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2022.119753] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Yang XD, Chen W, Ren Y, Chu LY. Exploration of the Adsorption Kinetics of Surfactants at the Water-Oil Interface via Grand-Canonical Molecular Dynamics Simulations. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2022; 38:1277-1286. [PMID: 35015552 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c03205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
It is well-known that surfactants tend to aggregate into clusters or micelles in aqueous solutions due to their special structures, and it is difficult for the surfactant molecules involved in the aggregation to move spontaneously to the oil-water interface. In this article, we developed a new grand-canonical molecular dynamics (GCMD) model to predict the saturated adsorption amount of surfactant with constant concentration of surfactant molecules in the bulk phase, which can prevent surfactants aggregating in the bulk phase and get the atomic details of the interfacial structural change with increase of the adsorption amount through a single GCMD run. The adsorption of anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) at the heptane-water interface was studied to validate the model. The saturated adsorption amount obtained from the GCMD simulation is consistent with the experimental results. The adsorption kinetics of SDS molecules during the simulation can be divided into three stages: linear adsorption stage, transition adsorption stage, and dynamic equilibrium stage. We also carried out equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) simulations to compare with GCMD simulation. This GCMD model can effectively reduce the simulation time with correct prediction of the interfacial saturation adsorption. We believe the GCMD method could be especially helpful for the computational study of surfactant adsorption under complex environments or emulsion systems with the adsorption of multiple types of surfactants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xue-Dan Yang
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China
- State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Wei Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049,China
- Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, China
| | - Ying Ren
- State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049,China
- Innovation Academy for Green Manufacture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Liang-Yin Chu
- School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China
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Yue W, Huang Z, Xiao M, Li X, Ma W, Zhang Y, Dai S, Lu H. Higher Fatty Acid-Based CO2-Controllable Dual-Circulation Approach for Oil Recovery. Ind Eng Chem Res 2021. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.1c04122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Wenjian Yue
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Southwest, Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, PR China
| | - Zhiyu Huang
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Southwest, Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, PR China
- Engineering Research Center of Oilfield Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Chengdu 610500, P. R. China
| | - Mengli Xiao
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Southwest, Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, PR China
| | - Xiaojiang Li
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Southwest, Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, PR China
| | - Wenjing Ma
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Southwest, Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, PR China
| | - Ying Zhang
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Southwest, Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, PR China
| | - Shanshan Dai
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Southwest, Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, PR China
| | - Hongsheng Lu
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Southwest, Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, PR China
- Engineering Research Center of Oilfield Chemistry, Ministry of Education, Chengdu 610500, P. R. China
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