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Synthesis, Properties and Application of Specialist Surfactants in Industrial and Biological Systems

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 1705

Special Issue Editors

Department of Interfacial Phenomena, Institute of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Chemistry, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Maria Curie-Skłodowska Sq. 3, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
Interests: relationship between adsorption and volumetric properties of surfactants and their wetting properties in different systems; surfactants from renewable raw materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Chemistry and Technology of Silicon Compounds, Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 8, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
Interests: synthesis and characterization of new functionalized silicone compounds; the use of silicone compounds as surface modifiers and the study of their surface properties; amphiphilic silicone compounds and silicone surfactants, and their potential application
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
INL—International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Av. Mestre José Veiga, 4715-310 Braga, Portugal
Interests: gene delivery; lipid-nucleic acid nanoassemblies; surfactant and lipid self-assembly; phase behaviour of therapeutically relevant materials; microfluidics; small-angle scattering (SAXS and SANS); fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy; soft matter; nanomedicine; physical chemistry; colloidal science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Industry and many biological systems involve different types of surfactants. From an ecological point of view special novel and natural (or seminatural) surfactants are particularly desirable in this respect. It results from the fact that almost all practically used synthetic surfactants are chemically derived from petroleum. They are often toxic for natural environment as well as human skin. In addition they can release toxic compounds during they decomposition, can be environmental hazardous due to their persistent nature, can negatively affect the soil fertility and also contaminate in the water bodies. In addition it is difficult to remove them from the soil as well as marine environment. However despite of the disadvantages their use increases day by day globally in both industries and households. Therefore, research on surfactants is currently focusing on compounds that are spontaneously biodegradable in the natural environment and those whose functional properties are much better than those of common synthetic surfactants. This may significantly influences the amount of synthetic surfactants used. In addition, in many cases mixtures of novel synthesized and natural surfactants and synthetic ones gives much better properties than those of individual compounds.

Adsorption of surfactants at different interfaces and wettability modification of different solids, especially those used as biomaterials, are especially important in the light of the self cleaning and for example biofilm formation processes. In such processes it is especially important to being able to predict the behaviour of a particular surfactant solutions. It can be a powerful tool in designing surfactant employment efficiently. In the literature there are many informations regarding to the systems including classical synthetic surfactants. However, there is no many papers dealing with the wettability of different solids (including biomaterials) by special novel as well as natural (or seminatural) surfactants. On the other hand, some aspects of solid wetting are still not explained exactly, such as for example the superwetting phenomena. In addition, many natural surfactants or biosurfactants have unique properties comparing to synthetic ones, such as: high surface activity, low toxicity, biodegradability, biological acceptability, good anti-microbial activity and do not lose physicochemical properties at different temperatures, pH and salinity levels. In order to understand the behaviour of these specialist surfactants it is worth considering some of the principles that govern this behaviour. In most cases the useful and fascinating properties of surfactants are essentially a result of combining into one molecule certain groups that as separate molecules would be incompatible.

Thus the proposed Special Issue of Molecules will cover the results of studies of synthesis and properties (also biological) of new synthesized as well as natural (seminatural) surfactants and biosurfactants. The results dealing with the surface, aggregation and wettability of different solids by specialist surfactant solutions in different conditions and areas are especially welcomed.

Dr. Joanna Krawczyk
Dr. Joanna Karasiewicz
Guest Editors

Dr. Bruno F. B. Silva
Co-Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • surfactant solution properties
  • biosurfactants
  • surface activity
  • micellization
  • wettability
  • synthesis of specialist surfactants
  • biodegradability
  • biological acceptability
  • wettability of solids (including biomaterials)
  • anti-microbial activity
  • superwetting

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 2984 KiB  
Article
Effect of Spontaneous and Water-Based Passivation on Components and Parameters of Ti6Al4V (ELI Grade) Surface Tension and Its Wettability by an Aqueous Solution of Sucrose Ester Surfactants
by Joanna Krawczyk, Amparo María Gallardo-Moreno and María Luisa González-Martín
Molecules 2022, 27(1), 179; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules27010179 - 28 Dec 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1267
Abstract
Solid wettability is especially important for biomaterials and implants in the context of microbial adhesion to their surfaces. This adhesion can be inhibited by changes in biomaterial surface roughness and/or its hydrophilic–hydrophobic balance. The surface hydrophilic–hydrophobic balance can be changed by the specifics [...] Read more.
Solid wettability is especially important for biomaterials and implants in the context of microbial adhesion to their surfaces. This adhesion can be inhibited by changes in biomaterial surface roughness and/or its hydrophilic–hydrophobic balance. The surface hydrophilic–hydrophobic balance can be changed by the specifics of the surface treatment (proper conditions of surface preparation) or adsorption of different substances. From the practical point of view, in systems that include biomaterials and implants, the adsorption of compounds characterized by bacteriostatic or bactericidal properties is especially desirable. Substances that are able to change the surface properties of a given solid as a result of their adsorption and possess at least bacteriostatic properties include sucrose ester surfactants. Thus, in our studies the analysis of a specific surface treatment effect (proper passivation conditions) on a biomaterial alloy’s (Ti6Al4V ELI, Grade 23) properties was performed based on measurements of the contact angles of water, formamide and diiodomethane. In addition, the changes in the studied solid surface’s properties resulting from the sucrose monodecanoate (SMD) and sucrose monolaurate (SML) molecules’ adsorption at the solid–water interface were also analyzed. For the analysis, the values of the contact angles of aqueous solutions of SMD and SML were measured at 293 K, and the surface tensions of the aqueous solutions of studied surfactants measured earlier were tested. From the above-mentioned tests, it was found that water environment significantly influences the components and parameters of Ti6Al4V ELI’s surface tension. It also occurred that the addition of both SMD and SML to water (separately) caused a drop in the water contact angle on Ti6Al4V ELI’s surface. However, the sucrose monolaurate surfactant is characterized by a slightly better tendency towards adsorption at the solid–water interface in the studied system compared to sucrose monodecanoate. Additionally, based on the components and parameters of Ti6Al4V ELI’s surface tension calculated from the proper values of components and parameters of model liquids, it was possible to predict the wettability of Ti6Al4V ELI using the aqueous solutions of SMD and SML at various concentrations in the solution. Full article
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