Temperature-Induced Aggregate Transitions in Mixtures of Cationic Ammonium Gemini Surfactant with Anionic Glutamic Acid Surfactant in Aqueous Solution

Abstract

The aggregation behaviors of the mixtures of cationic gemini surfactant 1,4-bis(dodecyl-N,N-dimethylammonium bromide)-2,3-butanediol (C12C4(OH)2C12Br2) and anionic amino acid surfactant N-dodecanoylglutamic acid (C12Glu) in aqueous solution of pH = 10.0 have been studied. The mixture forms spherical micelles, vesicles, and wormlike micelles at 25 °C by changing mixing ratios and/or total surfactant concentration. Then these aggregates undergo a series of transitions upon increasing the temperature. Smaller spherical micelles transfer into larger vesicles, vesicles transfer into solid spherical aggregates and then into larger irregular aggregates, and entangled wormlike micelles transfer into branched wormlike micelles. Moreover, the larger irregular aggregates and branched micelles finally lead to precipitation and clouding phenomenon, respectively. All these transitions are thermally reversible, and the transition temperatures can be tuned by varying the mixing ratios and/or total concentration. These temperature-dependent aggregate transitions can be elucidated on the basis of the temperature-induced variations in the dehydration, electrostatic interaction, and hydrogen bonds of the headgroup area and in the hydrophobic interaction between the hydrocarbon chains. The results suggest that the surfactants carrying multiple binding sites will greatly improve the regulation ability and temperature sensitivity.

Recent Advances in Catanionic Mixtures

“…Due to their enhanced properties, catanionic mixtures containing various dimeric surfactants have been subject of numerous papers [25,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. The most investigated are catanionic mixtures containing bis-quaternary ammonium salts with the alkyl spacers.…”

“…Aggregation behavior in mixtures of cationic dimeric surfactants derived from dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride (C 12 TACl, Figure 4) and SDS by means of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) was investigated by Prévost et al Figure 6), and anionic amino acid surfactant, N-dodecanoylglutamic acid (C 12 Glu, Figure 5) at pH = 10.0 [42]. At 25 °C small spherical micelles, vesicles and entangled worm-like micelles were detected in the system.…”

“…The larger irregular aggregates and branched micelles ultimately lead to precipitation and clouding phenomenon, respectively. All described transitions are thermally reversible and transition temperatures can be tuned by varying the molar ratio and/or the total surfactant concentration [42].…”

pH-Responsive Rheological Properties and Microstructure Transition in Mixture of Anionic Gemini/Cationic Monomeric Surfactants

“…Switchable wormlike micelles are one type of stimuli-responsive fluid whose reversible regulation of the rheological behaviors can be realized through introducing an external stimulus [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Based on the influence of the stimulus on these weak interactions, a series of stimuli-responsive wormlike micelles have been reported.…”

Temperature-induced reversible micelle–vesicle transition in aqueous solution of a pseudogemini surfactant without any additive

“…Huang et al 15,17 rst reported a temperature-induced micelleto-vesicle transition (MVT) in a cationic (dodecyltriethylammonium bromide)/anionic (sodium dodecyl sulfate) surfactant system, and it was observed that the transition from cylindrical micelles to vesicles was accompanied by an increase in turbidity of the solution with increasing temperature. Wang et al 22 reported effects of temperature on the transition of aggregates in a mixed system of ammonium gemini surfactant C 12 C 4 (OH) 2 C 12 Br 2 with anionic amino acid monomeric surfactant C 12 Glu. A series of transition of surfactant aggregates was observed upon increasing the temperature, e.g.…”