Micelles have been used over the years in a number of applications. Two would include the remediation of groundwater at contaminated sites and the transport of drug molecules to a site of action. This is due to the surfactants ability to trap materials in micelles that form when the surfactants are present at the critical micelle concentration (CMC). The formation of micelles greatly facilitates the transport of materials in aqueous systems. In addition to organic compounds, micelles have been shown to remove metals from aqueous systems. The focus of our research is to prepare surfactant motifs that are interconvertable between various modes. That is they can be converted between water soluble zwitterions to water insoluble ylide compound. The compound that is being synthesized is a carboxy methyl betaine. In this form the compound is in a zwitterionic form, though decarboxylation, it is converted to an ylide. Once we have successfully seen that the surfactant that is being synthesized will form micelles, we plan to explore the fate and transport properties involving organic compounds andmetal species.

Preparation and use of zwitterionic micelles

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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