Micelles, reverse

M. P. Pileni, ed.. Structure and Reactivity in Reverse Micelles, Elsevier, New York,... 

The majority of practical micellar systems of Tionnal micelles use water as tire main solvent. Reverse micelles use water immiscible organic solvents, altlrough tire cores of reverse micelles are usually hydrated and may contain considerable quantities of water. Polar solvents such as glycerol, etlrylene glycol, fonnamide and hydrazine are now being used instead of water to support regular micelles [10]. Critical fluids such as critical carbon dioxide are... 

The idealized reverse micelle sketched in figure C2.3.1 is an aggregate of a double-tail surfactant. In such systems the solvent is more compatible with the lyophobic part of the surfactant than with the headgroup. This preference... 

The issue of water in reverse micellar cores is important because water swollen reverse micelles (reverse microemulsions) provide means for carrying almost any water-soluble component into a predominantly oil-continuous solution (see discussions of microemulsions and micellar catalysis below). In tire absence of water it appears tliat premicellar aggregates (pairs, trimers etc.) are commonly found in surfactant-in-oil solutions [47]. Critical micelle concentrations do exist (witli some exceptions). 

Micelles are mainly important because they solubilize immiscible solvents in their cores. Nonnal micelles solubilize relatively large quantities of oil or hydrocarbon and reverse micelles solubilize large quantities of water. This is because the headgroups are water loving and the tailgroups are oil loving. These simple solubilization trends produce microemulsions (see section C2.3.11). 

It is of particular interest to be able to correlate solubility and partitioning with the molecular stmcture of the surfactant and solute. Likes dissolve like is a well-wom plirase that appears applicable, as we see in microemulsion fonnation where reverse micelles solubilize water and nonnal micelles solubilize hydrocarbons. Surfactant interactions, geometrical factors and solute loading produce limitations, however. There appear to be no universal models for solubilization that are readily available and that rest on molecular stmcture. Correlations of homologous solutes in various micellar solutions have been reviewed by Nagarajan [52]. Some examples of solubilization, such as for polycyclic aromatics in dodecyl sulphonate micelles, are driven by hydrophobic... 

Texter J, Antalek B and Williams A J 1997 Reverse micelle to sponge phase transition J. Chem. Phys. 106 7869-72... 

Hasegawa M, Sugimura T, Shindo Y and Kitahara A 1996 Structure and properties of AOT reversed micelles as studied by the fluorescence probe technique Colloids Surf. A 109 305-18... 

Flammouda A, Gulik T and Piieni M-P 1995 Synthesis of nanosize latexes by reverse micelle polymerization Langmuir 3656-9... 

Pileni M P 1993 Reverse micelles as microreactors J. Phys. Chem. 97 6961... 

Reverse jet scrubbei Reverse micelles Reverse osmosis... 

The long reaction time needed for this apparendy simple neutralization is on account of the phase inversion that takes place, namely, upon dilution, the soap Hquid crystals are dispersed as micelles. Neutralization of the sodium ions with sulfuric acid then reverses the micelles. The reverse micelles have a polar interior and a hydrophobic exterior. They coalesce into oil droplets. 

Microemulsions or reverse micelles are composed of enzyme-containing, surfactant-stabiHzed aqueous microdroplets in a continuous organic phase. Such systems may be considered as a kind of immobilization in enzymatic synthesis reactions. 

Cosolvents ana Surfactants Many nonvolatile polar substances cannot be dissolved at moderate temperatures in nonpolar fluids such as CO9. Cosolvents (also called entrainers, modifiers, moderators) such as alcohols and acetone have been added to fluids to raise the solvent strength. The addition of only 2 mol % of the complexing agent tri-/i-butyl phosphate (TBP) to CO9 increases the solubility ofnydro-quinone by a factor of 250 due to Lewis acid-base interactions. Veiy recently, surfac tants have been used to form reverse micelles, microemulsions, and polymeric latexes in SCFs including CO9. These organized molecular assemblies can dissolve hydrophilic solutes and ionic species such as amino acids and even proteins. Examples of surfactant tails which interact favorably with CO9 include fluoroethers, fluoroacrylates, fluoroalkanes, propylene oxides, and siloxanes. 

Product recoveiy from reversed micellar solutions can often be attained by simple back extrac tion, by contacting with an aqueous solution having salt concentration and pH that disfavors protein solu-bihzation, but this is not always a reliable method. Addition of cosolvents such as ethyl acetate or alcohols can lead to a disruption of the micelles and expulsion of the protein species, but this may also lead to protein denaturation. These additives must be removed by distillation, for example, to enable reconstitution of the micellar phase. Temperature increases can similarly lead to product release as a concentrated aqueous solution. Removal of the water from the reversed micelles by molecular sieves or sihca gel has also been found to cause a precipitation of the protein from the organic phase. 

Surface-active agents and hquids immiscible in water can form tiny dispersed units called reverse micelles. These can extract biochemicals from water or permit complexing or reacting in ways not possible in simple aqueous systems. 

Perez de Ortiz, E.S., Dias Lay, M. De L., Gruentges, K., Aluminium and iron extraction by DNNSA and DNNSA-DEHPA reverse micelles, Int. Solvent Extraction Conf. (ISEC 96) Value adding through solvent extraction, Ed. Shallcross, D.C., Paimin, R. Prvcic, L.M., Melbourne, Australia, pp.409-411, 1996. 

Micelles and reversed micelles are able to solubilize substances which are insoluble in the bulk phase of the system considered. This solubilization is due to a solvation by the amphiphile and concomitantly a change in the order of the solubilized molecules may occur as a consequence of its modified solvation shell. In this sense reversed micelles of detergents in hydrophobic solvents with solubilized water in the core are... 

The strong interactions between the water molecules also become obvious from NMR measurements by Tsujii et al..57) 13C-NMR experiments were used for determining the microviscosity of water in reversed micelles of dodecylammonium-propionate with 13C glycine cosolubilized. It was found that the apparent viscosity of the water-pool corresponds to the viscosity of a 78 % aqueous glycerol solution, obviously as a consequence of the extended network formation by strong hydrogen bonding. 

Similar conclusions were obtained from lH and 31P NMR and also from IR studies of egg phospholecithin reversed micelles in benzene by Boicelli et al. 58 61). According to the results of these experiments the water structure within the reversed phospholecithin micelles alters considerably compared with water in bulk. This becomes evident from the shortening of the relaxation time T, of the water protons split into two relaxation times T1A and T1B, indicating that there are at least two... 

With increasing water content the reversed micelles change via swollen micelles 62) into a lamellar crystalline phase, because only a limited number of water molecules may be entrapped in a reversed micelle at a distinct surfactant concentration. Tama-mushi and Watanabe 62) have studied the formation of reversed micelles and the transition into liquid crystalline structures under thermodynamic and kinetic aspects for AOT/isooctane/water at 25 °C. According to the phase-diagram, liquid crystalline phases occur above 50—60% H20. The temperature dependence of these phase transitions have been studied by Kunieda and Shinoda 63). 

Sodium octanoate (NaO) forms reversed micelles not only in hydrocarbons but also in 1-hexanol/water. The hydration of the ionogenic NaO headgroups plays an important role in this case too. For this reason Fujii et al. 64) studied the dynamic behaviour of these headgroups and the influence of hydration-water with l3C and 23Na NMR measurements. Below w0 = [H20]/[NaO] 6 the 23Na line-width... 

As mentioned above, water structure in reversed micelles deviates considerably from the structure in the bulk-phase. Therefore, the hydration shell of macromolecules entrapped in reversed micellar systems should be changed and thus also their conformation. According to the results of several authors this is indeed the case. 

The conformation of bovine myelin basic protein (MBP) in AOT/isooctane/water reversed micellar systems was studied by Waks et al. 67). This MBP is an extrinsic water soluble protein which attains an extended conformation in aqueous solution 68 but is more density packed at the membrane surface. The solubilization of MBP in the AOT reversed micelles depends on the water/AOT-ratio w0 68). The maximum of solubilization was observed at a w0-value as low as 5.56. The same value was obtained for another major protein component of myelin, the Folch-Pi proteolipid 69). According to fluorescence emission spectra of MBP, accessibility of the single tryptophane residue seems to be decreased in AOT reversed micelles. From CD-spectra one can conclude that there is a higher conformational rigidity in reversed micelles and a more ordered aqueous environment. 

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