Surfactants are ubiquitous molecules throughout many industries. However, the most common surfactants are made from nonrenewable feedstocks and may be toxic or bioaccumulative. Sophorolipids are biosurfactants produced from the fermentation of Candida Bombicola using natural, renewable feedstocks. They have attracted significant interest due to their biodegradability, but surface activity and solubility limits have limited their widespread adoption. Previous work has shown that modified sophorolipids, made with simple, green chemistry, can greatly improve the surface activity and solubility of natural sophorolipids when used in interfacial applications while remaining non-bioaccumulative. Hydrophobic phases and modifications studied in previous work has been limited to lemon oil, almond oil, and paraffin oil with a series of de-acetylated n-alkyl ester sophorolipids. This paper reports new simple modifications of the sophorolipid head and tail that cause drastic changes in surface activity beyond what would have been previously expected with respect to surface and interfacial tension. Modified sophorolipids with improved solubility while having desirable interfacial characteristics will be discussed. This work has also resulted in knowledge that has widened the scope of applications for which modified sophorolipids are effective.

Expanding applications and structures of modified sophorolipid derivatives

251st National Meeting (2016)

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