Understanding the pH-responsive behaviour of alkylamine surfactants

IF 5.3 2区化学 Q2 CHEMISTRY, PHYSICAL

Journal of Molecular Liquids Pub Date : 2025-04-28 DOI:10.1016/j.molliq.2025.127656

Tom Stavert, Miguel Jorge

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Alkylamine surfactants exhibit interesting pH-responsive behaviour, which can be attributed to changes in the protonation state of the primary amine group. This behaviour is important to their use in a broad variety of applications, but it is challenging to isolate experimentally due to the need to add acid to control system pH. In this work, we achieve this by applying multi-scale computational modelling to study the self-assembly and phase behaviour of the alkylamine surfactant dodecylamine (DDA), validating our model against available experimental phase diagrams for DDA. Our results show that the degree of charge of the surfactant controls the delicate balance between hydrophilic/hydrophobic interactions and hence the interplay between self-assembly and solubility that is responsible for the rich phase behaviour observed in these systems. These findings have important implications as to how pH can be used to control the behaviour of alkylamine surfactants in various applications.

Abstract Image

查看原文本刊更多论文

了解烷基胺表面活性剂的ph响应行为

烷基胺表面活性剂表现出有趣的ph响应行为，这可以归因于伯胺基团质子化状态的变化。这种行为对它们在各种应用中的使用很重要，但由于需要添加酸来控制系统ph，因此在实验上分离是具有挑战性的。在这项工作中，我们通过应用多尺度计算模型来研究烷基胺表面活性剂十二烷基胺（DDA）的自组装和相行为，验证我们的模型与可用的DDA实验相图。我们的研究结果表明，表面活性剂的电荷程度控制着亲疏水相互作用之间的微妙平衡，因此，自组装和溶解度之间的相互作用是导致这些系统中观察到的富相行为的原因。这些发现对于如何利用pH值来控制烷基胺表面活性剂在各种应用中的行为具有重要意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Molecular Liquids 化学-物理：原子、分子和化学物理

CiteScore

10.30

自引率

16.70%

发文量

2597

审稿时长

78 days

期刊介绍： The journal includes papers in the following areas: – Simple organic liquids and mixtures – Ionic liquids – Surfactant solutions (including micelles and vesicles) and liquid interfaces – Colloidal solutions and nanoparticles – Thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals – Ferrofluids – Water, aqueous solutions and other hydrogen-bonded liquids – Lubricants, polymer solutions and melts – Molten metals and salts – Phase transitions and critical phenomena in liquids and confined fluids – Self assembly in complex liquids.– Biomolecules in solution The emphasis is on the molecular (or microscopic) understanding of particular liquids or liquid systems, especially concerning structure, dynamics and intermolecular forces. The experimental techniques used may include: – Conventional spectroscopy (mid-IR and far-IR, Raman, NMR, etc.) – Non-linear optics and time resolved spectroscopy (psec, fsec, asec, ISRS, etc.) – Light scattering (Rayleigh, Brillouin, PCS, etc.) – Dielectric relaxation – X-ray and neutron scattering and diffraction. Experimental studies, computer simulations (MD or MC) and analytical theory will be considered for publication; papers just reporting experimental results that do not contribute to the understanding of the fundamentals of molecular and ionic liquids will not be accepted. Only papers of a non-routine nature and advancing the field will be considered for publication.