Gemini surfactants have recently been shown to exhibit unusual aqueous lyotropic self-assembly behavior, especially, the ability to form bicontinuous cubic morphologies with non-constant mean curvatures such as double gyroid, double diamond, and primitive structures. We have recently developed a modular synthesis of gemini bis(triazolium) surfactants that enables facile access to a wide variety of surfactant structures, and we have fully characterized their aqueous self-assembly behavior. These studies show that these bis(triazolium) surfactants exhibit a pronounced tendency to form cubosomes and hexasomes in aqueous media over large amphiphile concentration windows (10-30 wt% wide). Furthermore, we have demonstrated that the choice of counterion plays a critical role in governing both the morphologies as well as the stabilities of these assemblies.

Cubosomes and hexasomes from bis(triazolium) gemini surfactants

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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