Self-organization of surfactant molecules on immersed gold substrates

Abstract

The adsorption of surfactants on solid substrates is subject of both fundamental and applied interests. Many nano-sized systems used in drug delivery formulations in pharmacological sciences are constituted by surfactants alkyl ether sulfates, CnSO4, and polyoxyethylene alkyl ethers, CnEm. The aim of this work was to study the interaction of dilute solutions (below the critical micelle concentration, CMC) of different ionic (the alkyl ether sulfates C10SO4, C12SO4, C14SO4 and C18SO4) and nonionic surfactants (the alkyl ethers C10E8, C12E8, C14E8, C16E8 and C18E8) with the surface of a polycrystalline gold electrode of a electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM). The gold electrode surfaces, after the film adsorption, were characterized with the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and potentiostatic measurements.