Surfactants Self-Assembly Under Confinement
This project is supported, in part, by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
Mr. Naga Rajesh Tummala and Mr. Peter Luo are contributing to this project.
Rationale and Goal
It is well known that surfactants adsorb at solid-water interfaces yielding aggregates with well characterized morphologies. These effects are used in a number of practical applications ranging from the stabilization of colloidal dispersions to the design of consumer products such as shampoos and lotions.
With the development of nanotechnology and the introduction of interesting materials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene sheets, the area of surfactant science has encountered renewed interest. The question is: 'can we take advantage of surfactant self assembly on the nanoparticles to promote the stability of dispersions containing nanoparticles?'
The answer seems to be: 'it depends'.
By studying how self-assembled surfactant aggregates change morphology depending on the features of the nanoparticle (i.e., carbon nanotube diameter and graphene sheets size), we are providing a molecular-based explanation that will allow us to design surfactants to stabilize specific nanoparticles in aqueous environments.