Langmuir, Vol.27, No.5, 1668-1674, 2011
Giant Brainlike Aggregates from New Fluorocarbon/Hydrocarbon Hybrid Cationic Surfactants
A rapid synthetic procedure in two steps from perfluoroalkylethyl iodide derivatives led to 18 novel ammonium type hybrid surfactants of the general formula: R-F(CH2)(2)N+(CH3)(2)N+(CH3)(2)RHBr- (R-F = C4F9, C6F13, C8F17; R-H = C4H9, C6H13, C8H17, C10H21, C12H25, C14H29). These hybrid surfactants exhibited very low surface tension (from 16 to 25 mN/m) as well as low critical micellar concentration until 1.5 x 10(-5) mol/L. A special focus was made on aggregation phenomenon as giant multilamellar "brainlike" vesicles were observed via cryogenic scanning electron microscopy (cryoSEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM; with a contrast agent) suggesting a high encapsulation ability and a very important specific surface of these particular organizations.