Williams Ashley P, Faber Jonathan M, Recsei Carl, de Campo Liliana, Darwish Tamim A, Tuck Kellie L, Dagastine Raymond R, Tabor Rico F
School of Chemistry, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
National Deuteration Facility, ANSTO, Lucas Heights, New South Wales 2234, Australia.
J Phys Chem B. 2024 Jul 11;128(27):6648-6653. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c03429. Epub 2024 Jun 27.
Ether-linked surfactants are widely used in formulations such as liquid soaps, but despite their ubiquity, it is unclear how -ethylene glycol linkers in surfactants, such as sodium lauryl -(ethylene glycol) sulfate (SLEnS), influence micellar packing in the presence of NaCl. In the present work, we probe the structure and hydration of ether linkers in micelles comprising monodisperse SLEnS surfactants using contrast-variation small-angle neutron scattering (CV-SANS) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Using SAXS, changes in micellar structure were observed for SLEnS ( = 1, 2, or 3) arising from the extent of ethoxylation. Scattering profiles indicated a clear transition from elongated cylindrical micelles to shorter ellipsoidal micelles with increasing ethoxylation. With CV-SANS, micellar structure and linker geometries of SLE3S were able to be resolved, indicating that a change in micellar architecture is modulated by dehydration of the tri(ethylene glycol) linker, offering new insights into the role of water and ions in the self-assembly of this key class of surfactants.
醚键连接的表面活性剂广泛应用于液体肥皂等配方中。尽管它们无处不在，但尚不清楚表面活性剂中的乙二醇连接基，如十二烷基 -（乙二醇）硫酸钠（SLEnS），在氯化钠存在下如何影响胶束堆积。在本工作中，我们使用对比变化小角中子散射（CV-SANS）和小角X射线散射（SAXS）来探测包含单分散SLEnS表面活性剂的胶束中醚键连接基的结构和水合作用。使用SAXS，观察到由于乙氧基化程度的不同，SLEnS（n = 1、2或3）的胶束结构发生了变化。散射曲线表明，随着乙氧基化程度的增加，胶束从细长的圆柱形明显转变为较短的椭圆形。通过CV-SANS，能够解析SLE3S的胶束结构和连接基几何形状，表明三（乙二醇）连接基的脱水调节了胶束结构的变化，这为水和离子在这类关键表面活性剂自组装中的作用提供了新的见解。
