Anomalous Behavior of Amine Oxide Surfactants at the Air/Water Interface

A commonly stated requirement for the preparation of stable Langmuir monolayers of amphiphilic molecules at an air/water interface is that the surfactant must be insoluble in the subphase solution; however, a few prior studies have reported that some soluble surfactants can, under certain conditions, be compressed. The anomalous compression of soluble amphiphiles is extremely interesting and important, as it presents the possibility of greatly increasing the number of candidate compounds suitable for Langmuir monolayer studies and Langmuir-Blodgett deposition. The aim of this work was to obtain a better understanding of the factors that determine whether monolayers of a given water-soluble surfactant can be compressed. A series of amine oxide surfactants, including a novel gemini surfactant, were studied to explore the relationship between molecular structure and behavior at the air/water interface. Amine oxides are an especially interesting class of surfactants because their self-assembly in solution and at interfaces is pH-sensitive. Surface pressure-area isotherms show that the solubility of a surfactant in the subphase solution is not, in and of itself, a useful parameter in predicting whether the monolayer is compressible. Molecular modeling calculations suggest that the tendency of molecules to self-assemble plays a much more important role than solubility in this regard. The effect of pH was also investigated. We present a hypothesis that formation of dimers or small clusters of molecules at the interface inhibits the dissolution of these species into the subphase, and as a consequence the monolayer can be compressed.