Salt-Induced Linker Dehydration Modulates Micellar Structure in Ether-Linked Sulfate Surfactants.

Ether-linked surfactants are widely used in formulations such as liquid soaps, but despite their ubiquity, it is unclear how n-ethylene glycol linkers in surfactants, such as sodium lauryl n-(ethylene glycol) sulfate (SLEnS), influence micellar packing in the presence of NaCl. In the present work, we probe the structure and hydration of ether linkers in micelles comprising monodisperse SLEnS surfactants using contrast-variation small-angle neutron scattering (CV-SANS) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Using SAXS, changes in micellar structure were observed for SLEnS (n = 1, 2, or 3) arising from the extent of ethoxylation. Scattering profiles indicated a clear transition from elongated cylindrical micelles to shorter ellipsoidal micelles with increasing ethoxylation. With CV-SANS, micellar structure and linker geometries of SLE3S were able to be resolved, indicating that a change in micellar architecture is modulated by dehydration of the tri(ethylene glycol) linker, offering new insights into the role of water and ions in the self-assembly of this key class of surfactants.

Influence of Surfactant Structure on Polydisperse Formulations of Alkyl Ether Sulfates and Alkyl Amidopropyl Betaines.

Surfactants provide detergency, foaming, and texture in personal care formulations, yet the micellization of typical industrial primary and cosurfactants is not well understood, particularly in light of the polydisperse nature of commercial surfactants. Synergistic interactions are hypothesized to drive the formation of elongated wormlike self-assemblies in these mixed surfactant systems. Small-angle neutron scattering, rheology, and pendant drop tensiometry are used to examine surface adsorption, viscoelasticity, and self-assembly structure for wormlike micellar formulations comprising cocoamidopropyl betaine, and its two major components laurylamidopropyl betaine and oleylamidopropyl betaine, with sodium alkyl ethoxy sulfates. The tail length of sodium alkyl ethoxy sulfates was related to their ability to form wormlike micelles in electrolyte solutions, indicating that a tail length greater than 10 carbons is required to form wormlike micelles in NaCl solutions, with the decyl homologue unable to form elongated micelles and maintaining a low viscosity even at 20 wt % surfactant loading with 4 wt % NaCl present. For these systems, the incorporation of a disperse ethoxylate linker does not enable shorter chain surfactants to elongate into wormlike micelles for single-component systems; however, it could increase the interactions between surfactants in mixed surfactant systems. For synergy in surfactant mixing, the nonideal regular solution theory is used to study the sulfate/betaine mixtures. Tail mismatch appears to drive lower critical micelle concentrations, although tail matching improves synergy with larger relative reductions in critical micelle concentrations and greater micelle elongation, as seen by both tensiometric and scattering measurements.

Downsizing a human inflammatory protein to a small molecule with equal potency and functionality.

A significant challenge in chemistry is to rationally reproduce the functional potency of a protein in a small molecule, which is cheaper to manufacture, non-immunogenic, and also both stable and bioavailable. Synthetic peptides corresponding to small bioactive protein surfaces do not form stable structures in water and do not exhibit the functional potencies of proteins. Here we describe a novel approach to growing small molecules with protein-like potencies from a functionally important amino acid of a protein. A 77-residue human inflammatory protein (complement C3a) important in innate immunity is rationally transformed to equipotent small molecules, using peptide surrogates that incorporate a turn-inducing heterocycle with correctly positioned hydrogen-bond-accepting atoms. Small molecule agonists (molecular weight <500 Da) examined for receptor affinity and cellular responses have the same high potencies, functional profile and specificity of action as C3a protein, but greater plasma stability and bioavailability.

Enantioselective total synthesis of the mexicanolides: khayasin, proceranolide, and mexicanolide.

The enantioselective total synthesis of the limonoids khayasin, proceranolide and mexicanolide was achieved via a convergent strategy utilizing a tactic aimed at incorporating natural products as advanced intermediates. This extended biomimetically inspired approach additionally achieved the enantioselective total synthesis of the intermediates azedaralide and cipadonoid B.

A concise total synthesis of (±)-cipadonoid B from synthetic azedaralide.

The tetranortriterpene cipadonoid B was efficiently constructed from synthetic azedaralide in a one-pot cascade, via the underutilised ketal-Claisen rearrangement.