A photo-switchable surfactant possessing a spiropyran-moiety in its backbone – unravelling the structure of micelles with small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

Marek Bekir; Matthias Schenderlein; Jakob Ruickoldt; Petra Wendler; Joachim Kohlbrecher; Ingo Hoffmann; Martin Reifarth

doi:10.1039/D5CC00577A

A photo-switchable surfactant possessing a spiropyran-moiety in its backbone – unravelling the structure of micelles with small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)†

Marek Bekir,

*^a Matthias Schenderlein,^b Jakob Ruickoldt,^c Petra Wendler,^c Joachim Kohlbrecher,^d Ingo Hoffmann

*^e and Martin Reifarth

*^bf

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany
E-mail: marek.bekir@uni-potsdam.de

^b Fraunhofer Institute of Applied Polymer Research, Geiselbergstr. 69, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany

^c Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany

^d PSI Center for Neutron and Muon Science, Forschungsstr. 111, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

^e Institut Max von Laue-Paul Langevin (ILL), 71 Avenue des Martyrs, CS 20156, F-38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
E-mail: hoffmann@ill.fr

^f Institute of Chemistry, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany
E-mail: martin.reifarth@uni-potsdam.de

Abstract

We use SANS and TEM to elucidate the shape of the micelles that a spiropyran (SP) surfactant forms. Being both pH- and photo-switchable to a less surface active merocyanine (MC) form, we find that their micelles are of cylindrical shape in any case, which leads us to conclude that the surfactant always switches to its SP form when micellising.

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5CC00577A
Article type: Communication
Submitted: 31 Jan 2025
Accepted: 12 Mar 2025
First published: 12 Mar 2025
This article is Open Access

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Chem. Commun., 2025,61, 5585-5588

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A photo-switchable surfactant possessing a spiropyran-moiety in its backbone – unravelling the structure of micelles with small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

M. Bekir, M. Schenderlein, J. Ruickoldt, P. Wendler, J. Kohlbrecher, I. Hoffmann and M. Reifarth, Chem. Commun., 2025, 61, 5585 DOI: 10.1039/D5CC00577A

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Chemical Communications

A photo-switchable surfactant possessing a spiropyran-moiety in its backbone – unravelling the structure of micelles with small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)†

Abstract

Supplementary files

Article information

Download Citation

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A photo-switchable surfactant possessing a spiropyran-moiety in its backbone – unravelling the structure of micelles with small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

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