Micelle‐to‐vesicle transition of lipoamino Gemini surfactant induced by metallic salts and its effects on antibacterial activity

PACHÓN GÓMEZ, ERICA.M.; FERNANDO SILVA, O.; DER OHANNESIAN, MARTÍN; NÚÑEZ FERNÁNDEZ, MARIANA; OLIVEIRA, RAFAEL G.; FERNÁNDEZ, MARIANA A.

JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR LIQUIDS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2022

0167-7322

emini surfactants are amphiphilic molecules formed by two polar heads and two hydrophobic tails joined by a spacer between the polar groups. Their molecular structure gives them particular physico-chemical properties in comparison with their monomeric counterparts. In this work we synthetized a Gemini surfactant (SDDC) derived from the amino acid cystine and decanoic acid. The influence of different metallic salts on the aggregation of the surfactant was studied. SDDC forms core-shell type triaxial ellipsoidalmicelles in aqueous solution, but the aggregates suffer a change in morphology, forming vesicles in the presence of copper or silver ions. This behavior was corroborated by TEM and SAXS measurements. With the last technique was possible to estimate that vesicles formed in presence of copper consisted of 7.3 stacked bilayers. It was possible to determine that Cu2+ was reduced to Cu+ in the solution containing SDDC, through EPR and UV-visible spectrophotometry measurements. The red