The Hydrocarbon Chains

This observation that the length of the hydrocarbon chain could be varied from 16 to 26 carbon atoms without affecting the limiting area could only mean that at this point the molecules were oriented vertically. From the molecular weight and density of palmitic acid, one computes a molecular volume of 495 A a molecule occupying only 21 A on the surface could then be about 4.5 A on the side but must be about 23 A long. In this way one begins to obtain information about the shape and orientation as well as the size of molecules. 

Extensive discussions have focused on the conformation of the alkyl chains in the interior ". It has been has demonstrated that the alkyl chains of micellised surfactant are not fully extended. Starting from the headgroup, the first two or three carbon-carbon bonds are usually trans, whereas gauche conformations are likely to be encountered near the centre of tlie chain ". As a result, the methyl termini of the surfactant molecules can be located near the surface of the micelle, and have even been suggested to be able to protrude into the aqueous phase "". They are definitely not all gathered in the centre of tire micelle as is often suggested in pictorial representations. NMR studies have indicated that the hydrocarbon chains in a micelle are highly mobile, comparable to the mobility of a liquid alkane ... 

Here Ti is the spin-lattice relaxation time due to the paramagnetic ion d is the ion-nucleus distance Z) is a constant related to the magnetic moments, i is the Larmor frequency of the observed nucleus and sis the Larmor frequency of the paramagnetic elechon and s its spin relaxation time. Paramagnetic relaxation techniques have been employed in investigations of the hydrocarbon chain... 

Oxidation of carbon side-chains has resulted in the synthesis of dithiazolyl ketone (82) and thiazolyl phenyl ketone (83). The hydrocarbon chain can also be dehydrogenated in acetic acid in the presence of... 

Section 4 1 Functional groups are the structural units responsible for the character istic reactions of a molecule The hydrocarbon chain to which a func tional group is attached can often be considered as simply a supporting framework The most common functional groups characterize the fami lies of organic compounds listed on the inside front cover of the text... 

FIGURE 19 6 Space filling model of a micelle formed by association of car boxylate ions derived from a long chain carboxylic acid The hydrocarbon chains tend to be on the inside and the carboxylate ions on the surface where they are in contact with water mole cules and metal cations... 

The effect of a bulky substituent like a phenyl group on the hydrocarbon chain apparently decreases chain flexibiUty sufficiently to allow more intimate alignment between molecules, less free volume, and therefore a high value for Tg. 

Proton chemical shift data from nuclear magnetic resonance has historically not been very informative because the methylene groups in the hydrocarbon chain are not easily differentiated. However, this can be turned to advantage if a polar group is present on the side chain causing the shift of adjacent hydrogens downfteld. High resolution C-nmr has been able to determine position and stereochemistry of double bonds in the fatty acid chain (62). Broad band nmr has also been shown useful for determination of soHd fat content. 

The hydrophilic nature of the carboxyl group balanced against the hydrophobic nature of the hydrocarbon chain allows long-chain fatty acids to form monomolecular films at aqueous Hquid-gas, Hquid—Hquid, or Hquid—soHd interfaces (18). 

The alkanoic acids, with the exception of formic acid, undergo typical reactions of the carboxyl group. Formic acid has reducing properties and does not form an acid chloride or an anhydride. The hydrocarbon chain of alkanoic acids undergoes the usual reactions of hydrocarbons except that the carboxyl group exerts considerable influence on the site and ease of reaction. The alkenoic acids in which the double bond is not conjugated with the carboxyl group show typical reactions of internal olefins. All three types of reactions are industrially important. 

Reactions of the hydrocarbon chain in alkanoic acids include a-sulfonation and halogenation (51—54). The a-sulfonated fatty ester salts have excellent lime-dispersing properties and are valuable surface-active agents. 

The conditions for surfactants to be useful to form Hquid crystals exist when the cross-sectional areas of the polar group and the hydrocarbon chain are similar. This means that double-chain surfactants are eminently suited, and lecithin (qv) is a natural choice. Combiaations of a monochain ionic surfactant with a long-chain carboxyHc acid or alcohol yield lamellar Hquid crystals at low concentrations, but suffer the disadvantage of the alcohol being too soluble ia the oil phase. A combination of long-chain carboxyHc acid plus an amine of equal chain length suffers less from this problem because of extensive ionisa tion of both amphiphiles. 

For esters, alkylbenzenes, halogenated hydrocarbons, and ketones If the hydrocarbon chain has a methyl group in an isoposition, decrease AN by 0.24 and increase AB by 8.93 for each such grouping. For ethers and amines, decrease AN by 0.50 and increase AB by 8.93 for each isogroiip. 

Having demonstrated that our simulation reproduces the neutron data reasonably well, we may critically evaluate the models used to interpret the data. For the models to be analytically tractable, it is generally assumed that the center-of-mass and internal motions are decoupled so that the total intermediate scattering function can be written as a product of the expression for the center-of-mass motion and that for the internal motions. We have confirmed the validity of the decoupling assumption over a wide range of Q (data not shown). In the next two sections we take a closer look at our simulation to see to what extent the dynamics is consistent with models used to describe the dynamics. We discuss the motion of the center of mass in the next section and the internal dynamics of the hydrocarbon chains in Section IV.F. 

Two physically reasonable but quite different models have been used to describe the internal motions of lipid molecules observed by neutron scattering. In the first the protons are assumed to undergo diffusion in a sphere [63]. The radius of the sphere is allowed to be different for different protons. Although the results do not seem to be sensitive to the details of the variation in the sphere radii, it is necessary to have a range of sphere volumes, with the largest volume for methylene groups near the ends of the hydrocarbon chains in the middle of the bilayer and the smallest for the methylenes at the tops of the chains, closest to the bilayer surface. This is consistent with the behavior of the carbon-deuterium order parameters,. S cd, measured by deuterium NMR ... 

Table 2 Conformational Defects m the Hydrocarbon Chains in Fluid Phase Lipid Bilayers...

Curves relating the corrected retention volume to the concentration of moderator (methanol) in the mobile phase [3] are shown in Figure 4. In pure water, the hydrocarbon chains of the brush phase interact with each other and collapse onto the surface in much the same way as drops of an hydrocarbon will coalesce on the... 

When comparable amounts of oil and water are mixed with surfactant a bicontinuous, isotropic phase is formed [6]. This bicontinuous phase, called a microemulsion, can coexist with oil- and water-rich phases [7,1]. The range of order in microemulsions is comparable to the typical length of the structure (domain size). When the strength of the surfactant (a length of the hydrocarbon chain, or a size of the polar head) and/or its concentration are large enough, the microemulsion undergoes a transition to ordered phases. One of them is the lamellar phase with a periodic stack of internal surfaces parallel to each other. In binary water-surfactant mixtures, or in... 

---