Amphiphilic Properties of Dodecylammonium Chloride/4‐(1‐Pentylheptyl) Benzene Sodium Sulfonate Aqueous Mixtures and Study of the Catanionic Complex

Abstract

AbstractSurfactants are often used in supramolecular chemistry, due to their ability to self‐organize. Surfactant molecules aggregate spontaneously and reversibly to adopt a defined intermolecular arrangement. In this work, general phase behavior, adsorption and association in aqueous mixtures of dodecylammonium chloride, DACl and sodium 4‐(1‐pentylheptyl) benzenesulfonate, NaDBS, were studied by a combination of techniques including surface tension and conductivity measurements, light scattering and optical microscopy. The strong synergistic properties of the system were brought out with the Regular Solution Theory. Various colloidal objects are observed in wide range of composition: conventional small vesicles, large giant multilamellar or multivesicular vesicles. An excess of NaDBS provides extremely large tubular and elongated multilamellar vesicles. The new catanionic 1:1 complex, dodecylammonium‐4‐(1‐pentylheptyl) benzenesulfonate, formed in the equimolar conditions is a result of intramolecular charge neutralization. The thermal properties of this solid compound were examined by thermal polarizing microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and X‐ray diffraction. The most probable ion‐pair amphiphilic cluster of the crystal smectic phase, at room temperature, consists of ionic groups formed in ordered layers with dodecyl chains packed into somewhat disordered layers, tilted to the layer plane.