화학공학소재연구정보센터
Langmuir, Vol.23, No.26, 12802-12805, 2007
New ethoxylated inositol surfactant
Carbohydrates are an attractive class of starting materials for organic syntheses because they are of natural origin, environmentally friendly, and highly functionalized, in this way promoting a sustainable chemistry. A somewhat exotic but nevertheless readily available family of carbohydrates allowing a fascinating chemistry are mositols (cyclohexane-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexols), which we currently use for the synthesis of new surfactants. In our previous work, we reported on the synthesis of a number of new regiochemically defined myo-inositol ethers and esters and studied their surface activity in aqueous solution as well as their ability to form thermotropic liquid crystals. It turned out that the hydrophilicity of the myo-inositol head group alone does not ensure sufficient water solubility of these surfactants. To improve the water solubility, we increased the inositol head group-by the introduction of a tri(ethylene oxide) unit. The resulting surfactant is the first representative of a new class of inositol-based surfactants (CiEjIk that combine the properties of classical sugar surfactants (C(n)G(m)) and oligo(ethylene oxide) alkyl ether surfactants (CiEj).