Surface activities and thermodynamic properties of novel cationic surfactants with hydroxymethyl group

A new series of cationic surfactants, N–alkyl–N,N–dimethyl–N–(p–(hydroxymethyl) benzyl) ammonium chlorides (p-DHBA-m), were synthesized and the structures were characterized by 1HNMR, 13CNMR, FT–IR and ESI–MS. The surface activities, thermodynamic properties and aggregation behaviors of p-DHBA-m in aqueous solutions were respectively studied by means of surface tension, isothermal titration calorimetry and steady-state fluorescence methods. Thermodynamic parameters show that the micellization is an entropy-driven process. According to the fluorescence quenching method, the micelle aggregation numbers (Nagg) of p-DHBA-m were calculated and found that the increase of temperature or the elongation of alkyl chain length could lead to the reduction of the Nagg, respectively.