Issue 18, 2015

Structure and growth behavior of centimeter-sized helical oleate assemblies formed with assistance of medium-length carboxylic acids

Abstract

The nonequilibrium organization of self-assemblies from small building-block molecules offers an attractive and essential means to develop advanced functional materials and to understand the intrinsic nature of life systems. Fatty acids are well-known amphiphiles that form self-assemblies of several shapes. Here, we found that the lengths of helical structures of oleic acid formed in a buffered aqueous solution are dramatically different by the presence or absence of certain amphiphilic carboxylic acids. For example, under the coexistence of a small amount of N-decanoyl-L-alanine, we observed the formation of over 1 centimeter-long helical assemblies of oleate with a regular pitch and radius, whereas mainly less than 100 μm-long helices formed without this additive. Such long helical assemblies are unique in terms of their highly dimensional helical structure and growth dynamics. Results from the real-time observation of self-assembly formation, site-selective small-angle X-ray scattering, high-performance liquid chromatography analysis, and pH titration experiments suggested that the coexisting carboxylates assist in elongation by supplying oleate molecules to a scaffold for oleate helical assembly.

Graphical abstract: Structure and growth behavior of centimeter-sized helical oleate assemblies formed with assistance of medium-length carboxylic acids

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Feb 2015
Accepted
05 Mar 2015
First published
06 Mar 2015

Soft Matter, 2015,11, 3550-3558

Author version available

Structure and growth behavior of centimeter-sized helical oleate assemblies formed with assistance of medium-length carboxylic acids

Y. Kageyama, T. Ikegami, N. Hiramatsu, S. Takeda and T. Sugawara, Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 3550 DOI: 10.1039/C5SM00370A

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