Adsorption and aggregation properties of novel star-shaped gluconamide-type cationic surfactants in aqueous solution

The adsorption and aggregation behavior of novel star-shaped gluconamide-type cationic surfactants N-dodecyl-N,N-bis[(3-D-gluconylamido)propyl]-N-alkylammonium bromide (C_nDBGB, where n represents hydrocarbon chain lengths of 10, 12, and 14) has been studied on the basis of static/dynamic surface tension, conductivity, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) data. The static surface tension of the C_nDBGB aqueous solution measured at the critical micelle concentration (CMC) is observed to be significantly lower than that of the corresponding monomeric surfactants. The dynamic surface tension results indicate that adsorption process of above CMC is a mixed diffusion–kinetic adsorption mechanism. From the results of temperature dependent conductivity measurements, we could obtain the degree of counterion binding (β) and the thermodynamic parameters such as standard free energy (ΔG _mic ⁰ ), enthalpy (ΔH _mic ⁰ ), and entropy (ΔS _mic ⁰ ) of aggregation. With a combination of the DLS and TEM data, a size transformation of the micelles is suggested to occur with an increase in the concentration.