Anesthetics clinical uses

In this paper, we discuss the behavior of eight solutes at the interface between two immiscible liquids - water and hexane. Four of the solutes, methanol, ethanol, butanol and hexanol, are amphiphilic, straight chain alcohols. This choice allows us to examine systematically the interfacial activity of amphiphiles as a function of the hydrophobic chain length. The remaining four molecules, nitrous oxide, cyclopropane, isoflurane and desflurane are not amphiphilic. Even though nitrous oxide, cyclopropane and the two halogenated ethers are structurally unrelated, they, nonetheless, share an important property - all of them are clinical anesthetics. 

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