Over the past 5 years, our research laboratory has prepared a number of novel surfactants with a variety of non-conventional structures.  These include compounds with two to six cationic head groups and one to three non-polar tails. Structural variation includes modification of tail length, core structure, cationic groups and counterions.  This work has allowed us to begin to develop an understanding of the relationship between amphiphile structure and colloidal activity, as measured by critical aggregation concentration in aqueous solution.  Collaborations with JMU Biology and JMU Physics have also led to an understanding of the relationship between structure and antibacterial and foam-forming ability, respectively.  This has led to the development of several compounds with high antibacterial activity, as well as the Ongoing work aims to optimize our search for potent and fast-acting antiseptics.

Colloidal and antibacterial studies of non-conventional polycationic amphiphiles

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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