Modification of Nonionic Vesicles by Adding Decanol and Functional Lanthanide Ions

Abstract

AbstractColloid systems modified by luminescent ions in situ are highly attractive for the design of new molecular architectures and adaptable for monitoring and visualizing soft drug delivery systems. This paper presents original results on the characterization of the self‐organization process and the structure of vesicles formed by tetraethylene glycol monodecyl ether (C12EO4) in the presence of lanthanide ions and decanol additives. Detailed characterization of surface activity, aggregation properties and microstructure of individual and mixed aggregates has been carried out based on surface tension, electron microscopy, small‐angle X‐ray scattering, dynamic light scattering analysis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The small‐angle scattering results in combination with quantum‐chemical calculations assume the multishell vesicle formation in C12EO4/C10H21OH/H2O media. In the C12EO4 solution the presence of Ln(III) ions and decanol initiate the formation of multilamellar vesicles with a size of about 100 nm. The luminescence analysis of the Eu(III) and Tb(III) complexes has shown the efficient solubilization in the C12EO4/C10H21OH/H2O vesicles, which leads to increase in the lifetime. The resulting outcome is the possibility to control micro and macro properties of a molecular organized system to give it the desired functionality.