Design, synthesis, anticorrosion efficiency, and applications of novel Gemini surfactants for preparation of small-sized hollow spheres mesoporous silica nanoparticles

Abstract

The unique properties of Gemini surfactants and their variety of applications encouraged many researchers to synthesize more of these compounds. Herein, we constructed new cationic Gemini surfactants by using aromatic spacers with different chain lengths. The critical micelle concentration value for each surfactant was determined using the electrical conductivity measurements. The variety of aggregation behaviors of Gemini surfactants was studied by using atomic force microscopy, which encouraged us to use these surfactants in the preparation of mesoporous silica NPs. Our results indicated that we have succeeded in finding a new soft-template for preparing uniform small size hollow spheres mesoporous silica NPs of a diameter depending on the used surfactant. Moreover, we investigated the effect of pH value on the morphology of the prepared silica, which indicated that using of acidic media resulted in the formation of hollow micro-particles instead of hollow NPs. Furthermore, the anti-corrosion efficiency of these surfactants in comparing with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a positive control was investigated by monitoring the corrosion rate of iron sheets in 0.5 M of hydrochloric acid based on weight loss method. Our results indicated that all the prepared Gemini surfactants possessed higher anti-corrosion efficiency at very low concentrations than CTAB surfactant.