Phase Behavior of Salt-Free Catanionic Surfactant Aqueous Solutions with Fullerene C60 Solubilized

Abstract

A salt-free catanionic surfactant system, tetradecyltrimethylammonium laurate (TTAL), was constructed by mixing tetradecyltrimethylammonium hydroxide (TTAOH) and lauric acid (LA). The H+ and OH- counterions form water (TTAOH+LA-->TTAL+H2O), leaving the solution salt-free. The phase behaviors at fixing the total surfactant concentration (cTTAL) to be 33.0 and 55.0 mmol L(-1), respectively, were studied through varying the molar ratio of r=nLA/nTTAOH from 0.70 to 1.20. With an increasing value of r, one observed an L1-region, an Lalpha/L1 two-phase region with a birefringent Lalpha-phase at the top, and finally a single Lalpha-phase. The ability to solubilize a fullerene mixture of C60 and C70 of different phases in different regions was tested. The colloidal stability and phase behavior of different phases with embedded fullerenes were investigated as a function of r, cTTAL, and weight ratio of fullerene to surfactant (WF/WTTAL). The 33.0 or 55.0 mmol L(-1) zero-charged vesicle-phase at r=1.00 could solubilize a considerable amount of fullerenes without macroscopic phase separation and obvious vesicular structure breakage. However, these colloidal solutions became unstable at lower concentrations of surfactants, and a precipitate would be observed at the bottom. The micellar (L1-phase) solubilization at the TTAOH-rich side was less pronounced compared to the vesicular solubilization of the zero-charged vesicle-phase, and the solubilizing ability decreased at higher r values. In the Lalpha/L1 two-phase region, a brown or dark-brown Lalpha-phase was usually found at the top of a colorless or yellowish L1-phase, indicating that most of the fullerenes were embedded in the upper Lalpha-phase. The influence of fullerene incorporation on the property of the zero-charged TTAL vesicle-phase was also investigated, and evidence has been found that the system tended to be more fluid after fullerenes were incorporated into the hydrophobic microdomains of aggregates.