Properties and sodium salicylate induced aggregation behavior of a tail-branched cationic surfactant with a hydroxyl-containing hydrophilic head†
Abstract
A cationic surfactant with a Guerbet-type branched tail and hydroxyl-decorated head group was synthesized and characterized. Its properties including surface activity, dynamic surface tension, wetting ability, concentration/salt induced aggregation pattern transition and rheological responses of aqueous solutions were measured and analyzed. It was found that this new amphiphile possessed powerful surface activity (γcmc = 25.26 mN m−1) and could enhance the spreading of an aqueous solution on a low energy solid surface (paraffin surface); while dynamic surface tension measurements implied that the diffusion rate of surfactant molecules, influenced by the presence of hydroxyl groups, had an impact on the wetting process. It was determined that the introduction of branching hydrophobes and hydroxyls into the amphiphilic material crucially contributed to the superior performances. Moreover, a visual transition with increasing concentration of its aqueous solution was observed, while the addition of the structure-forming additive sodium salicylate (NaSal) could highly improve the viscosity by inducing the micellar growth in the cationic system which was researched by rheological experiments. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were operated to investigate the transformation of aggregates which are responsible for the concentration/salt induced phase behavior transition or rheological responses.