Towards life in hydrocarbons: aggregation behaviour of “reverse” surfactants in cyclohexane

Facchin, Manuela; Scarso, Alessandro; Selva, Maurizio; Perosa, Alvise; Riello, Pietro

doi:10.1039/c7ra01027c

Cited by 12 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Figure 8 shows the experimental SAXS data for a 200 mM concentration of ADOH in C 6 H 12 taken from Ref. 8 Interestingly, the line is not characterised by a marked drop of the intensity as expected for regular spherical objects of well-defined radius. Rather, at higher scattering vector Q it decays slowly and without showing any particular feature, a behaviour compatible with the presence of irregular objects with no clear size.…”

Section: Reconciling With the Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Can Polarity-Inverted Surfactants Self-Assemble in Nonpolar Solvents?

Carrer¹,

Skrbic²,

Bore³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We investigate the self-assembly process of a surfactant with inverted polarity in water and cyclohexane using both all-atom and coarse grained hybrid particle-field molecular<br>dynamics simulations. Unlike conventional surfactants, the molecule under study proposed in a recent experiment is<br><div>formed by a rigid and compact hydrophobic adamantane moiety, and a long and floppy triethylene glycol tail. In water, we report the formation of stable inverted micelles with the adamantane heads grouping together into a hydrophobic core, and the tails forming hydrogen bonds with water. By contrast, multi-microsecond simulations do not provide evidence of stable micelle formation in cyclohexane. Validating the computational results by comparison with experimental diffusion constant and small-angle neutron scattering intensity, we show that at laboratory thermodynamic conditions the mixture resides in the supercritical region of the phase diagram, where aggregated and free surfactant states co-exist in solution. Our simulations also provide indications about how to escape this region, to produce thermodynamically stable micellar forms.</div>

show abstract

Section: Reconciling With the Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Can Polarity-Inverted Surfactants Self-Assemble in Nonpolar Solvents?

Carrer¹,

Skrbic²,

Bore³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To better understand the physics of ADOH in solution, it proves interesting to investigate the self-assembly of ADOH in water, a case that unfortunately was not covered in the experiment of Ref. [8]. Figure 5A depicts the aggregation state for a 50 mM concentration of ADOH in water after only 50 ns of all-atom MD simulations.…”

Section: B Adoh In Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently such an experiment has been performed on a newly synthesized molecule having exactly these features [8]. This molecule, henceforth referred to as ADOH, is formed by a rigid and compact adamantane moiety AD and a long and floppy tail that consists of a triethylene glycol (TEG) with a characteristic group O -CH 2 -CH 2 capped at the end by a hydroxyl group that is able to form hydrogen bonds ( Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Can Polarity-Inverted Surfactants Self-Assemble in Nonpolar Solvents?

Carrer

Škrbić²,

Milano³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We investigate the self-assembly process of a surfactant with inverted polarity in water and cyclohexane using both all-atom and coarse grained hybrid particle-field molecular<br>dynamics simulations. Unlike conventional surfactants, the molecule under study proposed in a recent experiment (M. Facchin et al., RSC Adv. 2017, 7, 15337–15341) is<br><div>formed by a rigid and compact hydrophobic adamantane moiety, and a long and floppy triethylene glycol tail. In water, we report the formation of stable inverted micelles with the adamantane heads grouping together into a hydrophobic core, and the tails forming hydrogen bonds with water. By contrast, multi-microsecond simulations do not provide evidence of stable micelle formation in cyclohexane. Validating the computational results by comparison with experimental diffusion constant and small-angle neutron scattering intensity, we show that at laboratory thermodynamic conditions the mixture resides in the supercritical region of the phase diagram, where aggregated and free surfactant states co-exist in solution. Our simulations also provide indications about how to escape this region, to produce thermodynamically stable micellar forms.</div>

show abstract

“…An important question is, if compounds (amphiphiles) exist, which show surfactant‐like behaviour in non‐aqueous solution. Because a major factor for the formation of surfactant aggregates is the hydrophobic effect, as discussed in Section 2.1, it is not obvious what happens, if water is absent . Therefore, next, we want to look into non‐aqueous solvent systems and other amphiphilic systems with large building blocks in their molecular architecture, so‐called shape amphiphiles.…”

Section: Basics Of Surfactant Self‐assemblymentioning

confidence: 99%

Added‐Value Surfactants

Polarz

Kunkel

Donner

et al. 2018

Chemistry A European J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Surfactants are ubiquitous in cellular membranes, detergents or as emulsification agents. Due to their amphiphilic properties, they cannot only mediate between two domains of very different solvent compatibility like water and organic but also show fascinating self-assembly features resulting in micelles, vesicles, or lyotropic liquid crystals. The current review article highlights some approaches towards the next generation surfactants, for example, those with catalytically active heads. Furthermore, it is shown that amphiphilic properties can be obtained beyond the classical hydrophobic-hydrophilic interplay, for instance with surfactants containing one molecular block with a special shape. Whereas, classical surfactants are static, researchers have become more interested in species that are able to change their properties depending on external triggers. The article discusses examples for surfactants sensitive to chemical (e.g., pH value) or physical triggers (temperature, electric and magnetic fields).

show abstract

Towards life in hydrocarbons: aggregation behaviour of “reverse” surfactants in cyclohexane

Cited by 12 publications

References 21 publications

Can Polarity-Inverted Surfactants Self-Assemble in Nonpolar Solvents?

Can Polarity-Inverted Surfactants Self-Assemble in Nonpolar Solvents?

Can Polarity-Inverted Surfactants Self-Assemble in Nonpolar Solvents?

Added‐Value Surfactants

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About