Ultrafast proton transfer of pyranine in a supramolecular assembly: PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymer and CTAC

Excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) of pyranine (8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonate, HPTS) is studied in a polymer-surfactant aggregate using femtosecond emission spectroscopy. The polymer-surfactant aggregate is a supramolecular assembly consisting of a triblock copolymer (PEO)(20)-(PPO)(70)-(PEO)(20) (P123) and a cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC). ESPT of the protonated species (HA) in HPTS leads to the formation of A(-). The dynamics of ESPT may be followed from the decay of the HA emission (at approximately 440 nm) and rise of the A(-) emission (at approximately 550 nm). Both steady-state and time-resolved studies suggest that ESPT of HPTS in P123-CTAC aggregate is much slower than that in bulk water, in P123 micelle, or in CTAC micelle. The ratio of the steady-state emission intensities (HA/A(-)) in P123-CTAC aggregate is 2.2. This ratio is approximately 50, 12, and 2 times higher than that respectively in water, in P123 micelle, and in CTAC micelle. Retardation of ESPT causes an increase in the rise time of the A(-) emission of HPTS. In P123-CTAC aggregate, A(-) displays three rise times: 30, 250, and 2400 ps. These rise times are longer than those in CTAC micelle (23, 250, and 1800 ps), in bulk water (0.3, 3, and 90 ps), and in P123 micelle (15 and 750 ps). The rate constants for initial proton transfer, recombination, and dissociation of the ion pair are estimated using a simple kinetic scheme. The slow fluorescence anisotropy decay of HPTS in P123-CTAC aggregate is analyzed in terms of the wobbling-in-cone model.     

Studies of dynamic interactions between a pyrene-labeled polyelectrolyte and an oppositely charged rodlike micelle by a fluorescence quenching technique with use of a hydrophobic quencher

Electrostatic interactions of poly(sodium 2-(acrylamido)-2-methylpropanesulfonate) (PyPAMPS) labeled with pyrene and a rodlike micelle of dimethyloleylamine oxide (DMOAO), an amine oxide type surfactant, mixed with varying mole fractions (Y) of hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC), a cationic surfactant, were investigated by a fluorescence quenching technique using 3,4'-dimethylbenzophenone (DBP), a hydrophobic quencher, that can only reside in the micellar phase. Fluorescence measurements were performed under homogeneous conditions in the region 0Yc, the fluorescence was efficiently quenched by DBP-carrying DMOAO/CTAC mixed micelles, both steady-state and time-dependent fluorescence data indicating that the degree of the quenching and hence the extent of the complex formation increased significantly with increasing Y. Applying a kinetic model to the steady-state and time-dependent fluorescence data, the residence time for PyPAMPS in the polymer-micelle complex was calculated. The residence time was found to depend on both Y and mu, e.g., when Y was increased from 0.01 to 0.03, the residence time increased from 4 to 80 mus at mu=0.05 whereas little or no increase in the residence time was observed in this range of Y at mu=0.20. At this higher ionic strength, the residence time increased only moderately from 3 to 10 mus when Y was increased from 0.01 to 0.09.     

Small-angle X-ray scattering, light scattering, and NMR study of PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymer/cationic surfactant complexes in aqueous solution

The formation of triblock copolymer/surfactant complexes upon mixing a nonionic Pluronic polymer (PEO-PPO-PEO) with a cationic surfactant, hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC), has been studied in dilute aqueous solutions using small-angle X-ray scattering, static and dynamic light scattering, and self-diffusion NMR. The studied copolymer (denoted P123, EO(20)PO(68)EO(20)) forms micelles with a radius of 10 nm and a molecular weight of 7.5 x 10(5), composed of a hydrophobic PPO-rich core of radius 4 nm and a water swollen PEO corona. The P123/CTAC system has been investigated between 1 and 5 wt % P123 and with varying surfactant concentration up to approximately 170 mM CTAC (or a molar ratio n(CTAC)/n(P123) = 19.3). When CTAC is mixed with micellar P123 solutions, two different types of complexes are observed at various CTAC concentrations. At low molar ratios (>/=0.5) a "P123 micelle-CTAC" complex is obtained as the CTAC monomers associate noncooperatively with the P123 micelle, forming a spherical complex. Here, an increased interaction between the complexes with increasing CTAC concentration is observed. The interaction has been investigated by determining the structure factor obtained by using the generalized indirect Fourier transformation (GIFT) method. The interaction between the P123 micelle-CTAC complexes was modeled using the Percus-Yevick closure. For the low molar ratios a small decrease in the apparent molecular weight of the complex was obtained, whereas the major effect was the increase in electrostatic repulsion between the complexes. Between molar ratios 1.9 and 9 two coexisting complexes were found, one P123 micelle-CTAC complex and one "CTAC-P123" complex. The latter one consists of one or a few P123 unimers and a few CTAC monomers. As the CTAC concentration increases above a molar ratio of 9, the P123 micelles are broken up and only the CTAC-P123 complex that is slightly smaller than a CTAC micelle exists. The interaction between the P123/CTAC complexes was modeled with the hypernetted-chain closure using a Yukawa type potential in the GIFT analysis, due to the stronger electrostatic repulsion.     

十六烷基三甲基氯化铵与直接蓝199的相互作用

采用吸收光谱法和电导率法,研究了阳离子表面活性剂十六烷基三甲基氯化铵（CTAC）与直接蓝199(DB199)的相互作用。 实验结果表明,当CTAC的浓度低于临界胶束浓度（CMC）时,混合溶液的电导率随CTAC浓度变化曲线与理论计算曲线基本吻合;高于CMC时,CTAC溶液中有80.88%的Cl-吸附在胶束的表面,当加入染料之后数量会降至78.48%。 混合溶液的最大吸收波长（λmax）随着CTAC浓度的增加先发生蓝移后红移。λmax处吸光度随着CTAC的浓度增大先下降后上升。     

Interactions of novel, nonhemolytic surfactants with phospholipid vesicles

PEG-12-acyloxystearates constitute a novel class of pharmaceutical solubilizers and are synthesized from polyethylene glycol and 12-hydroxystearic acid, which has been esterified with a second acyl chain. The hemolytic activity of these surfactants decreases drastically with increasing pendant acyloxy chain length, and surfactants with an acyloxy chain of 14 carbon atoms or more are essentially nonhemolytic. In this paper, the interactions of PEG-12-acyloxystearates (acyloxy chain lengths ranging from 8 to 16 carbon atoms) with phosphatidylcholine vesicles, used as a model system for erythrocyte membranes, were studied in search of an explanation for the large variations in hemolytic activity. Surfactant-induced alterations of membrane permeability were investigated by studying the leakage of vesicle-entrapped calcein. It was found that all of the surfactants within the series interact with the vesicle membranes and cause slow leakage at elevated surfactant concentrations, but with large variations in leakage kinetics. The initial leakage rate decreases rapidly with increasing pendant acyloxy chain length. After prolonged incubation, on the other hand, the leakage is not a simple function of acyloxy chain length. The effect of the surfactants on membrane integrity was also investigated by turbidity measurements and cryo-transmission electron microscopy. At a surfactant/lipid molar ratio of 0.4, the vesicle membranes are saturated with surfactant. When the surfactant/lipid molar ratio is further increased, the vesicle membranes are progressively solubilized into mixed micelles. The rate of this process decreases strongly with increasing acyloxy chain length. When comparing the results of the different experiments, it can be concluded that there is no membrane permeabilization below saturation of the vesicle membranes. The large variations in the kinetics suggest that several steps are involved in the mechanism of leakage induced by PEG-12-acyloxystearates and that their relative rates vary with acyloxy chain length. The slow kinetics may in part be explained by the low critical micelle concentrations (CMCs) exhibited by the surfactants. The CMCs were found to be in the range of 0.003-0.025 microM.     

Development and validation of HPLC method for imiquimod determination in skin penetration studies

A simple, rapid and sensitive analytical procedure for the measurement of imiquimod in skin samples after in vitro penetration studies has been developed and validated. In vitro penetration studies were carried out in Franz diffusion cells with porcine skin. Tape stripping technique was used to separate the stratum corneum (SC) from the viable epidermis and dermis. Imiquimod was extracted from skin samples using a 7:3 (v/v) methanol:acetate buffer (100 mM, pH 4.0) solution and ultrasonication. Imiquimod was analyzed by HPLC using C(8) column and UV detection at 242 nm. The mobile phase used was acetonitrile:acetate buffer (pH 4.0, 100 mM):diethylamine (30:69.85:0.15, v/v) with flow rate 1 mL/min. Imiquimod eluted at 4.1 min and the running time was limited to 6.0 min. The procedure was linear across the following concentration ranges: 100-2500 ng/mL for both SC and tape-stripped skin and 20-800 ng/mL for receptor solution. Intra-day and inter-day accuracy and precision values were lower than 20% at the limit of quantitation. The recovery values ranged from 80 to 100%. The method is adequate to assay imiquimod from skin samples, enabling the determination of the cutaneous penetration profile of imiquimod by in vitro studies.     

Effect of electrostatic interaction on the location of molecular probe in polymer-surfactant supramolecular assembly: a solvent relaxation study

Effect of electrostatic interaction on the location of a solubilized molecular probe with ionic character in a supramolecular assembly composed of a triblock copolymer, P123 ((ethylene oxide) 20-(propylene oxide) 70-(ethylene oxide) 20) and a cosurfactant cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) in aqueous medium has been studied using steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence measurements. Coumarin-343 dye in its anionic form has been used as the molecular probe. In the absence of the surfactant, CTAC, the probe C343 prefers to reside at the surface region of the P123 micelle, showing a relatively less dynamic Stokes' shift, as a large part of the Stokes' shift is missed in the present measurements due to faster solvent relaxation at micellar surface region. As the concentration of CTAC is increased in the solution, the percentage of the total dynamic Stokes' shift observed from time-resolved measurements gradually increases until it reaches a saturation value. Observed results have been rationalized on the basis of the mixed micellar structure of the supramolecular assembly, where the hydrocarbon chain of the CTAC surfactant dissolves into the nonpolar poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) core of the P123 micelle and the positively charged headgroup of CTAC resides at the interfacial region between the central PPO core and the surrounding hydrated poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) shell or the corona region. The electrostatic attraction between the anionic probe molecule and the positively charged surface of the PPO core developed by the presence of CTAC results in a gradual shift of the probe in the deeper region of the micellar corona region with an increase in the CTAC concentration, as clearly manifested from the solvation dynamics results.     

Global study of myoglobin-surfactant interactions

Surfactants interact with proteins in multifarious ways which depend on surfactant concentration and structure. To obtain a global overview of this process, we have analyzed the interaction of horse myoglobin (Mb) with an anionic (SDS) and cationic (CTAC) surfactant, using both equilibrium titration techniques and stopped-flow kinetics. Binding and kinetics of conformational changes can be divided into a number of different regions (five below the cmc and one above) with very distinct features (broadly similar between the two surfactants, despite their difference in head group and chain length), which nuance the classical view of biphasic binding prior to micellization. In stage A, fairly weak interactions lead to a linear decrease in thermal stability. This gives way to a more cooperative process in stage B, where aggregates (presumably hemimicelles) start to form on the protein surface, leading to global denaturation (loss of a thermal transition) and biphasic unfolding kinetics. This is consolidated in stage C with titratable surfactant adsorption. Adsorption of this surfactant species leads to significant changes in kinetics, namely, inhibition of unfolding kinetics in CTAC and altered unfolding amplitudes in SDS, though the process is still biphasic in both surfactants. Stage D commences the reduction in exothermic binding signals, leading to further uptake of 5 (SDS) or 31 (CTAC) surfactant molecules without any major changes in protein conformation. In stage E many more surfactant molecules (46 SDS and 39 CTAC) are bound, presumably as quasi-micellar structures, and we observe a very slow unfolding phase in SDS, which disappears as we reach the cmc. Above the cmc, the unfolding rates remain essentially constant in SDS, but increase significantly in CTAC, possibly because binding of bulk micelles removes the inhibition by hemimicellar aggregates. Our work highlights the fascinating richness of conformational changes that proteins can undergo in the presence of molecules with self-assembling properties.     

Fabrication of nanoaggregates of a triple hydrophilic block copolymer by cetyltrimethylammonium chloride binding

A triple hydrophilic block copolymer composed of poly(ethylene oxide), poly(sodium 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonate), and poly(methacrylic acid) (PEO-PAMPS-PMAA) does not form a micelle by itself when it is dissolved in water. However, if the anionic PAMPS and/or PMAA blocks are electrically neutralized with a cationic surfactant, such as cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC), micelle-like nanoaggregates are obtained, where the core is formed by the insolubilized PAMPS and/or PMAA blocks. Formation of the nanoaggregates was confirmed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while the binding of CTAC to PEO-PAMPS-PMAA was monitored by electrophoresis measurements. The aggregates were characterized by fluorescence spectroscopy as well as DLS and SEM. It was found that the nanoaggregates have a spherical structure, and the hydrodynamic diameter ranges from 125 to 193 nm depending on the concentrations of the PEO-PAMPS-PMAA and CTAC. The critical aggregate concentration is on the order of 10-4 g L-1 when the ionic blocks of PEO-PAMPS-PMAA are fully neutralized with CTAC.     

Surfactant Effects on the Permeability of Photosynthetic Membrane from Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1 Probed by Electrochromic Shift of Endogenous Carotenoids

Four surfactants, sodium cholate(SC), n-dodecyl-β-D-maltopyranoside(DDM), lauryldimethylamine oxide(LDAO) and Triton X-100(TX), which are generally used in photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes preparation, were studied on their interaction with photosynthetic membrane from Rhodobacter sphaeroides 2.4.1 by electrochromic absorption band-shift of endogenous carotenoids and by vesicle size measurements as well. The surfactant critical micelle concentration(cmc) was found to be negatively correlated with the capability of enhancing the permeability of photosynthetic membranes to proton, and more elaborated model of surfactants interacting with membranes was obtained. The electrochromic absorption band-shift measurement might develop into a useful tool to evaluate the effects of surfactants on various membranes.     

Nanoaggregates of ABC-type triple hydrophilic block copolymers by binding of cationic surfactant

A triple hydrophilic block copolymer comprised of poly(ethylene oxide), poly(sodium 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonate), and poly(methacrylic acid) (PEO–PAMPS–PMAA) does not form a micelle by itself when it is dissolved in water. However, in the previous paper, we fabricated the nanoaggregates of PEO–PAMPS–PMAA and cationic surfactant, such as cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC), by insolubilizing the anionic PAMPS and/or PMAA blocks of the polymer with CTAC only at high pH. In this paper, we fabricated the nanoaggregates of dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride (DTAC) and PEO–PAMPS–PMAA in a wide range of pH to examine the effect of ionization of the PMAA blocks of the polymer on the aggregates formation of PEO–PAMPS–PMAA. The properties of the nanoaggregates are affected by the ionization of PMAA block of the polymer. DTAC (C12 alkyl chain) was employed instead of CTAC (C16 alkyl chain) to reveal the effect of alkyl chain length of surfactant on the aggregate formation of PEO–PAMPS–PMAA. The properties of PEO–PAMPS–PMAA nanoaggregates also depend on the structure of surfactant. The binding of DTAC to PEO–PAMPS–PMAA was monitored by electrophoresis measurements, while the formation of DTAC/PEO–PAMPS–PMAA nanoaggregates was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering measurements and fluorescence spectroscopy.     

Creation of transdermal pathways for macromolecule transport by skin electroporation and a low toxicity, pathway-enlarging molecule

A combined electrical (HV, "high voltage", pulsing) and chemical (topical sodium thiosulfate) intervention is hypothesized to create enlarged aqueous pathways that allow large quantities of macromolecules to be transported through human skin's stratum corneum (SC), the dominant barrier for transdermal drug delivery and biochemical analyte extraction. This expectation is based on the known structure and composition of the SC, and previous models and experiments for local transport regions (LTRs) due to transdermal HV pulsing. In vitro experiments demonstrated that transdermal macromolecule fluxes of 10(-9) to 10(-8) mol h(-1) cm(-2) (10 to 100 microg h(-1) cm(-2)) or greater are possible for lactalbumin and an antibody (IgG), which are potentially therapeutic values for peptides, proteins and nucleic acids. In the absence of sodium thiosulfate, only a small molecule (sulforhodamine) flux increased significantly, consistent with many previous studies. Significant macromolecule transdermal fluxes occurred only if a pathway enlarging molecule (sodium thiosulfate) was present. Our results also provide support for the mechanism hypothesis that HV pulses leading to transdermal voltages U(skin) > 50 V create straight-through aqueous pathways that penetrate multilamellar bilayer membranes, corneocyte envelopes and corneocyte interiors within the SC.     

Spectroscopic studies on the interaction of bovine (BSA) and human (HSA) serum albumins with ionic surfactants

Bovine (BSA) and human (HSA) serum albumins are frequently used in biophysical and biochemical studies since they have a similar folding, a well known primary structure, and they have been associated with the binding of many different categories of small molecules. One important difference of BSA and HSA is the fact that bovine albumin has two tryptophan residues while human albumin has a unique tryptophan. In this work results are presented for the interaction of BSA and HSA with several ionic surfactants, namely, anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), cationic cethyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) and zwitterionic N-hexadecyl-N,N-dimethyl-3-ammonium-1-propanesulfonate (HPS), as monitored by fluorescence spectroscopy of intrinsic tryptophans and circular dichroism spectroscopy. On the interaction of all three surfactants with BSA, at low concentrations, a quenching of fluorescence takes place and Stern-Volmer analysis allowed to estimate their 'effective' association constants to the protein: for SDS, CTAC and HPS at pH 7.0 these constants are, respectively, (1.4+/-0.1) x 10(5) M(-1), (8.9+/-0.1) x 10(3) M(-1) and (1.4+/-0.1) x 10(4) M(-1). A blue shift of maximum emission is observed from 345 to 330 nm upon surfactant binding. Analysis of fluorescence emission spectra allowed to separate three species in solution which were associated to native protein, a surfactant protein complex and partially denatured protein. The binding at low surfactant concentrations follows a Hill plot model displaying positive cooperativity and a number of surfactant binding sites very close to the number of cationic or anionic residues present in the protein. Circular dichroism data corroborated the partial loss of secondary structure upon surfactant addition showing the high stability of serum albumin. The interaction of the surfactants with HSA showed an enhancement of fluorescence at low concentrations, opposite to the effect on BSA, consistent with the existence of a unique buried tryptophan residue in this protein with considerable static quenching in the native state. The effects of surfactants at low concentrations were very similar to those of myristic acid suggesting a non specific binding through hydrophobic interaction modulated by eletrostatic interactions. The changes in the vicinity of the tryptophan residues are discussed based on the recently published crystallographic structure of HSA myristate complex (S. Curry et al., Nat. Struct. Biol. 5 (1998) 827).     

Concentration and medium micellar kinetic effects caused by morphological transitions

The reaction methyl naphthalene-2-sulfonate + Br(-) was investigated in several alkanediyl-α-ω-bis(dodecyldimethylammonium) bromide, 12-s-12,2Br(-) (with s = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12), micellar solutions in the absence and in the presence of various additives. The additives were 1,2-propylene glycol, which remains in the bulk phase, N-decyl N-methylglucamide, MEGA10, which forms mixed micelles with the dimeric surfactants, and 1-butanol, which distributes between the aqueous and micellar phases. Information about the micellar reaction media was obtained by using conductivity and fluorescence measurements. In all cases, with the exception of water-1,2-prop 12-5-12,2Br(-) micellar solutions, with 30% weight percentage of the organic solvent, a sphere-to-rod transition takes place upon increasing surfactant concentration. In order to quantitatively explain the experimental data within the whole surfactant concentration range, a kinetic equation based on the pseudophase kinetic model was considered, together with the decrease in the micellar ionization degree accompanying micellar growth. However, theoretical predictions did not agree with the experimental kinetic data for surfactant concentrations above the morphological transition. An empirical kinetic equation was proposed in order to explain the data. It contains a parameter b which is assumed to account for the medium micellar kinetic effects caused by the morphological transition. The use of this empirical equation permits the quantitative rationalization of the kinetic micellar effects in the whole surfactant concentration range.     

Mixed Micellization of Dimeric (Gemini) Surfactants and Conventional Surfactants

The aqueous solutions of mixtures of various conventional surfactants and dimeric anionic and cationic surfactants have been investigated by electrical conductivity, spectrofluorometry, and time-resolved fluorescence quenching to determine the critical micelle concentrations and the micelle aggregation numbers in these mixtures. The following systems have been investigated: 12-2-12/DTAB, 12-2-12/C(12)E(6), 12-2-12/C(12)E(8), 12-3-12/C(12)E(8), Dim3/C(12)E(8), and Dim4/C(12)E(8) (12-2-12 and 12-3-12=dimethylene-1,2- and trimethylene-1,3-bis(dodecyldimethylammonium bromide), respectively; C(12)E(6) and C(12)E(8)=hexa- and octaethyleneglycol monododecylethers, respectively; Dim3 and Dim4=anionic dimeric surfactants of the disodium sulfonate type, Scheme 1; DTAB=dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide). For the sake of comparison the conventional surfactant mixtures DTAB/C(12)E(8) and SDS/C(12)E(8) (SDS=sodium dodecylsulfate) have also been investigated (reference systems). Synergism in micelle formation (presence of a minimum in the cmc vs composition plot) has been observed for the Dim4/C(12)E(8) mixture but not for other dimeric surfactant/nonionic surfactant mixtures investigated. The aggregation numbers of the mixed reference systems DTAB/C(12)E(8) and SDS/C(12)E(8) vary monotonously with composition from the value of the aggregation number of the pure C(12)E(8) to that of the pure ionic component. In contrast, the aggregation number of the dimeric surfactant/C(12)E(8) mixtures goes through a minimum at a low value of the dimeric surfactant mole fraction. This minimum does not appear to be correlated to the existence of synergism in micelle formation. The initial decrease of the aggregation number of the nonionic surfactant upon addition of ionic surfactant, up to a mole fraction of ionic surfactant of about 0.2 (in equivalent per total equivalent), depends little on the nature the surfactant, whether conventional or dimeric. The results also show that the microviscosity of the systems containing dimeric surfactants is larger than that of the reference systems. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Rheology of wormlike micelles in aqueous systems of a mixed amino acid-based anionic surfactant and cationic surfactant

Amino acid-based anionic surfactant, N-dodecanoylglutamic acid, after neutralizing by 2, 2′, 2″-nitrilotriethanol forms micellar solution at 25 °C. Addition of cationic cosurfactants hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC), hexadecylpyridinium chloride (CPC), and hexadecylpyridinium bromide (CPB) to the semi-dilute solution of anionic surfactant micellar solutions favor the micellar growth and after a certain concentration, entangled rigid network of wormlike micelles are formed. Viscosity increases enormously ～4th order of magnitude compared with water. With further addition of the cosurfactants, viscosity declines and phase separation to liquid crystal occurs. The wormlike micelles showed a viscoelastic behavior and described by Maxwell model with a single stress-relaxation mode. The position of viscosity maximum in the zero-shear viscosity curve shifts towards lower concentration upon changing cosurfactant from CPB to CTAC via CPC; however, the maximum viscosity is highest in the CPB system showing the formation of highly rigid network structure of wormlike micelles. In all the systems, viscosity decays exponentially with temperature following Arrhenius type behavior.     

Metal complex separation with on-line sample preconcentration in micellar electrokinetic chromatography.

Micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) using a cationic surfactant as a pseudostationary phase was examined to separate anionic metal cyclohexane-1,2-diaminetetraacetic acid (CDTA) complexes. Cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) was employed as the cationic surfactant micelle, its addition leading to EOF reversal. Cu(II), Co(II), Zn(II), Mn(II) and Pb(II) were used as test analytes, and the complete separation was obtained by MEKC. On-line sample preconcentration by sweeping was also examined to improve the detection sensitivity. From 15- to 42-fold increases in the detection sensitivity in terms of the peak heights were obtained by sweeping with a cationic micelle in the presence of high EOF. The limits of detection were in the range (0.6 - 1.8) x 10(-6) M with UV detection without any off-line preconcentration step.     

New pressure‐assisted sweeping on‐line preconcentration for highly polar environmentally relevant nitrosamines: Part 2. Cationic and anionic surfactants with zero‐flow capillaries

We recently introduced a pressure‐assisted sweeping‐reversed migration‐EKC (RM‐EKC) method for preconcentration of neutral polar N‐nitrosamines with low affinity for the micellar phase. The type of surfactant and phase ratio are dominant factors in dictating the magnitude of interactions between analyte and micellar phase, thus four surfactants (anionic and cationic) with a range of functionalities (SDS, ammonium perfluorooctanoate (APFO), bile salts, and cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC)) were evaluated for sweeping‐RM‐EKC of highly polar N‐nitrosamines. All gave acceptable results for sweeping‐RM‐EKC when used in high concentrations (≥200 mM) with low EOF. While no single surfactant was superior by all measures, all but the bile salts had useful performance characteristics. APFO showed the narrowest peak widths and highest number of theoretical plates, though two species co‐migrated at all concentrations (25–300 mM); SDS and the cationic surfactant CTAC also showed good separation characteristics and could resolve all peaks, but CTAC had wider separation window. Various types of capillaries coated for EOF control were compared for use with anionic and cationic surfactants. A commercial zero‐EOF capillary coated with a polymer bearing sulfonic acid functional groups showed superior EOF suppression and reproducibility of migration time with all surfactants.     

Effect of surfactant counterion and organic modifier on the properties of surfactant vesicles in electrokinetic chromatography

Counterion and organic modifier are two parameters in EKC that can be varied in order to obtain improved solubility, selectivity, and efficiency. The effect of changing surfactant counterion and/or organic modifier on the chromatographic and electrophoretic properties of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/sodium octyl sulfate (SOS) vesicles is examined in EKC. The vesicles are prepared in a 1:3.66 cationic/ anionic mole ratio for a total surfactant concentration of 69 mM. The cationic CTAB is replaced by cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) and the first use of CTAC/SOS vesicles is reported. The mean diameter of the CTAC/SOS vesicles is 96 nm while that of the CTAB/SOS vesicles is 85 nm. A class I modifier (2-amino-1-butanol) and a class II modifier (acetonitrile) have similar effects on the EOF, elution range, methylene selectivity, and the efficiency of the CTAB/SOS vesicles and the CTAC/SOS vesicles. Upon addition of 10% ACN, there is roughly a 10-fold increase in the efficiency of heptanophenone, a model hydrophobic compound, compared to the efficiency using unmodified vesicles. Linear free energy relationship (LFER) analysis using the Abraham solvation model is employed to characterize solute-vesicle interactions. The results suggest that organic modifier-vesicle interactions depend somewhat on the counterion.     

The influence of surfactant mixing ratio on nano-emulsion formation by the pit method

The formation of O/W nano-emulsions by the PIT emulsification method in water/mixed nonionic surfactant/oil systems has been studied. The hydrophilic-lipophilic properties of the surfactant were varied by mixing polyoxyethylene 4-lauryl ether (C12E4) and polyoxyethylene 6-lauryl ether (C12E6). Emulsification was performed in samples with constant oil concentration (20 wt%) by fast cooling from the corresponding HLB temperature to 25 degrees C. Nano-emulsions with droplet radius 60-70 nm and 25-30 nm were obtained at total surfactant concentrations of 4 and 8 wt%, respectively. Moreover, droplet size remained practically unchanged, independent of the surfactant mixing ratio, X(C12E6). At 4 wt% surfactant concentration, the polydispersity and instability of nano-emulsions increased with the increase in X(C12E6). However, at 8 wt% surfactant concentration, nano-emulsions with low polydispersity and high stability were obtained in a wide range of surfactant mixing ratios. Phase behavior studies showed that at 4 wt% surfactant concentration, three-liquid phases (W+D+O) coexist at the starting emulsification temperature. Furthermore, the excess oil phase with respect to the microemulsion D-phase increases with the increase in X(C12E6), which could explain the increase in instability. At 8 wt% surfactant concentration, a microemulsion D-phase is present when emulsification starts. The low droplet size and polydispersity and higher stability of these nano-emulsions have been attributed, in addition to the increase in the surface or interfacial activity, to the spontaneous emulsification produced in the microemulsion D-phase.