A photo-switchable surfactant possessing a spiropyran-moiety in its backbone – unravelling the structure of micelles with small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)†

Abstract

We use SANS and TEM to elucidate the shape of the micelles that a spiropyran (SP) surfactant forms. Being both pH- and photo-switchable to a less surface active merocyanine (MC) form, we find that their micelles are of cylindrical shape in any case, which leads us to conclude that the surfactant always switches to its SP form when micellising.