Synthesis and solution properties of adamantane-containing quaternary ammonium salt-type cationic surfactants: Hydrocarbon-based, fluorocarbon-based and bola-type

Abstract

Quaternary ammonium salt-type cationic surfactants with an adamantyl group (hydrocarbontype; CnAdAB, fluorocarbon-type; CmFC3AdAB, bola-type; Ad-s-Ad, where n, m and s represent hydrocarbon chain lengths of 8-16, fluorocarbon chain lengths of 4-8, and spacer chain length of 10-12) were synthesized via quaternization of N, N-dimethylaminoadamantane and n-alkyl bromide or 1, n-dibromoalkane. Conductivity and surface tension were measured to characterize the solution properties of the synthesized adamantyl group-containing cationic surfactants. In addition, the effects of hydrocarbon and fluorocarbon chain lengths and spacer chain length between headgroups on the measured properties were evaluated by comparison with those of conventional cationic surfactants. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of CnAdAB and Ad-s-Ad was 2/5 of that for the corresponding conventional surfactants CnTAB and bola-type surfactants with similar number of carbons in the alkyl or alkylene chain; this was because of the increased hydrophobicity due to the adamantyl group. A linear relationship between the logarithm of CMC and the hydrocarbon chain length for CnAdAB was observed, as well as for CnTAB. The slope of the linear correlation for both surfactants was almost the same, indicating that the adamantyl group does not affect the CMC with variations in the hydrocarbon chain length. Similar to conventional surfactants CnTAB, the hydrocarbon-type CnAdAB is highly efficient in reducing the surface tension of water, despite the large occupied area per molecule resulting from the relatively bulky structure of the adamantane skeleton. On the other hand, the bola-type Ad-s-Ad resulted in increased surface tension compared to CnAdAB, indicating that the curved chain between adamantyl groups leads to poor adsorption and orientation at the air-water interface.