Phosphine oxide surfactants revisited.

This review summarizes everything we currently know about the nonionic surfactants alkyl dimethyl (C(n)DMPO) and alkyl diethyl (C(n)DEPO) phosphine oxide (PO surfactants). The review starts with the synthesis and the general properties (Section 2) of these compounds and continues with their interfacial properties (Section 3) such as surface tension, surface rheology, interfacial tension and adsorption at solid surfaces. We discuss studies on thin liquid films and foams stabilized by PO surfactants (Section 4) as well as studies on their self-assembly into lyotropic liquid crystals and microemulsions, respectively (Section 5). We aim at encouraging colleagues from both academia and industry to take on board PO surfactants whenever possible and feasible because of their broad variety of excellent properties.

Preparation and physical characterization of pure beta-carotene.

Pure all-trans beta-carotene has been prepared on the 10's of grams scale by isothermal Fractional Dissolution (FD) of commercial laboratory samples in tetrahydrofuran (THF). beta-Carotene purified in this way is black, with a faint brownish tinge. The electronic spectra of black samples extend into the near infrared, with end-absorption past 750 nm. Black samples react directly with dioxygen under mild conditions to yield the familiar orange or red powders. Pure beta-carotene rigorously obeys Beer's Law in octane over the entire UV-Vis spectral range, while commercial laboratory samples and recrystallized samples do not. NMR self-diffusion coefficient data demonstrate that beta-carotene exists as simple molecular solutions in octane and toluene. The anomalously high crystallinity of beta-carotene can be attributed (from analysis using molecular mechanics) to the facts that: (1) the number of theoretically possible conformers of beta-carotene is extremely small, and (2) only a small fraction of these (ca. 12%, or 127) may actually exist in fluid phases.