Cationic surface active detergent

Bromat . [Zeeland] Cetrimonium bromide cationic surface active agent, deterge antiseptic laboratoty reagent germicide. 

Cationic surface active agents such as benzalkonium chloride and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (Figure 1) have use as antibacterial agents, i.e., disinfectants and antiseptics, and have the advantage that the antimicrobial action is combined with a cleaning action associated with their detergent activity. 

A wide class of aiyl-based quaternary surfactants derives from heterocycles such as pyridine and quinoline. The Aralkyl pyridinium halides are easily synthesized from alkyl halides, and the paraquat family, based upon the 4, 4 -bipyridine species, provides many interesting surface active species widely studied in electron donor-acceptor processes. Cationic surfactants are not particularly useful as cleansing agents, but they play a widespread role as charge control (antistatic) agents in detergency and in many coating and thin film related products. 

Quats are usually moderately soluble ia water, but this varies widely owiag to the range of groups bonded to the nitrogen. They are fundamentally nonreactive but act as surface—active cations. Compatibility with anionic detergents and activity ia the presence of hard water have been claimed for some quats (19). 

Surfactants are classified as anionic, cationic, non-ionic or ampho-lytic according to the charge carried by the surface-active part of the molecule. Some common examples are given in Table 4.2. In addition, surfactants are often named in relation to their technological application hence names such as detergent, wetting agent, emulsifier and dispersant. 

The use of surface active agents often modifies the charge of the protein irreversibly through formation of complexes, and because of this a careful study of lipoproteins may prove useful, since anionic detergents influence alpha-lipoproteins, and cationic detergents, beta-lipoproteins (A7, M17). 

Structure Formation in Surfactant Solutions. Surfactants, also referred to as soaps, detergents, tensides, or surface active agents, are amphiphilic molecules possessing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions. They can be classified as anionic, cationic, zwitterionic, or nonionic (neutral) depending upon the nature of the polar... 

In a typical aqueous environment that contains small amounts of divalent cations, endotoxin has a molecular weight of about 10 Da (21). If divalent cations are removed from the aqueous environment by chelators, the endotoxin bilayers break down into micelles of 300,000 to 1,000,000 molecular weight. When these micelles are further broken down in the presence of surface-active agents, their molecular weight drops again to about 10,000-20,000. However, these steps are completely reversible if the detergents are dialyzed out, and divalent cations are added back to the endotoxin, the micelles and then the membranous structures reassemble themselves. ... 

IV. Detergents are surface active substances that have features of all three surfactant groups described above, and in addition they are able to spontaneously form thermodynamically stable colloidal systems (for micellization in surfactant solutions please refer to Chapter VI). The particles that are washed away may become incorporated into the nuclei or micelles, i.e. solubilization (See Chapter VI) takes place. Various anionic, cationic, and nonionic surfactants that are encountered further in this section are typically members of this surfactant group. 

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