Design and synthesis of imidazolium-based photopolymerizable gemini surfactants forming lyotropic liquid crystalline phases with room temperature ionic liquids

COLL 25

Jason E. Bara, jason.bara@colorado.edu1, Xiaohui Zeng, zeng@colorado.edu2, Christopher J. Gabriel, christopher.gabriel@colorado.edu2, Sonja Lessmann2, Richard D. Noble, nobler@colorado.edu1, and Douglas L. Gin, gin@spot.colorado.edu3. (1) Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, UCB 424, Boulder, CO 80309-0424, (2) Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Colorado, UCB 215, Boulder, CO 80309, (3) Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, and Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Colorado, UCB 424, Boulder, CO 80309
Imidazolium-based materials come in a variety of incarnations. Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs), polymers and amphiphilic liquid crystals (LCs) have all been synthesized with imidazolium cations at their cores. These materials have spawned thousands of original research papers over the last several years in a variety of fields, including solvents for chemical reactions, ion conduction, catalysis and gas separations. We now introduce another class of materials based on imidazolium salts: gemini surfactants.

A library of imidazolium-based gemini surfactants were synthesized and their liquid-crystalline properties in the presence of water and RTILs examined by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and polarized light microscopy (PLM). These novel surfactants were found to adopt various lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) phases, including lamellar (L), hexagonal (H) and potentially bicontinuous cubic (Q) geometries. The preferred aggregate structure can be influenced by selectively tailoring various portions of the molecules. Given their modular natures and ease of synthesis, these LLCs allow for tailored materials and access to various, porous nanostructures. Imidazolium-based LLCs offer enhancements through straightforward syntheses and can serve as replacements to current functional materials.

 

Surfactant Self-Assembly
9:00 AM-12:15 PM, Sunday, August 19, 2007 BCEC -- 153B, Oral

Division of Colloid & Surface Chemistry

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007