Hydrophobic Interface Cages in Microemulsions: Concept and Experiment Using Tetraphenylethylene-based Double-tailed Surfactant

Abstract

Although hydrophobic interface regions adjacent to water droplets play a vital role in microemulsion-based studies, their widespread applications have not been explicitly evoked owing to their small spaces. Herein, we designed and synthesized a novel double-tailed anionic surfactant(TPE-di-C8SS) by linking the propeller-shaped tetraphenylethylene(TPE) with two octyl chains and an anionic sulfonate headgroup through a methoxy-butyl spacer. The extra spacer and steric hindrance between rigid TPE groups can create the large cavities in hydrophobic interface regions, which we call the hydrophobic interface cages(HICs). The potentials and advantages of HICs in the easily-prepared TPE-di-C8SS microemulsion have been implemented by comparing the extraction efficiency towards cationic rhodamine B with Aerosol OT(AOT) microemulsion. The results provided solid evidence that HICs rather than water droplets contributed to a higher extraction efficiency. This work not only proposes a concept of HICs but also provides a new perspective of their utilization in microemulsion-based applications.

Keywords

Aggregation-induced emission / Hydrophobic interface cage / Tetraphenylethylene / Microemulsion

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