Formation of hybrid wormlike micelles upon mixing cetyl trimethylammonium bromide with poly(methyl methacrylate-co-sodium styrene sulfonate) copolymers in aqueous solution

Development of Environmentally Friendly Biocidal Coatings Based on Water-soluble Copolymers for Air-cleaning Filters

Air pollution by pathogens has posed serious concern on global health during the last decades, especially since the breakout of the last pandemic. Therefore, advanced high-efficiency techniques for air purification are highly on demand. However, in air-filtering devices, the prevention of secondary pollution that may occur on the filters remains a challenge. Toward this goal, in the present work, we demonstrate a facile and eco-friendly process for the biocidal treatment of commercial high-efficiency particulate air filters. The antibacterial filters were successfully prepared through spray coating of aqueous solutions based on biocidal water-soluble polymers, poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate-co-cetyl trimethylammonium 4-styrene sulfonate-co-glycidyl methacrylate) [P(SSNa24-co-SSAmC₁₆56-co-GMA20)] and poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl)methacrylate. Significantly, an optimized green route was developed for the synthesis of the used polymers in aqueous conditions and their stabilization through cross-linking reaction, leading to biocidal air filters with long-lasting activity. The developed coatings presented strong and rapid antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (in 5 min) and Escherichia coli (in 15 min). Moreover, the cytotoxicity test of the polymeric materials toward Α549 lung adenocarcinoma cells indicated very low toxicity as they did not affect either the cell growth or cell morphology. The above-mentioned results together with the scalable and easy-to-produce green methodology suggest that these materials can be promising candidates as filter coatings for use on air-purification devices.

Novel Trends in the Development of Surfactant-Based Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids: A Review

Viscoelastic surfactants (VES) are amphiphilic molecules which self-assemble into long polymer-like aggregates-wormlike micelles. Such micellar chains form an entangled network, imparting high viscosity and viscoelasticity to aqueous solutions. VES are currently attracting great attention as the main components of clean hydraulic fracturing fluids used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Fracturing fluids consist of proppant particles suspended in a viscoelastic medium. They are pumped into a wellbore under high pressure to create fractures, through which the oil can flow into the well. Polymer gels have been used most often for fracturing operations; however, VES solutions are advantageous as they usually require no breakers other than reservoir hydrocarbons to be cleaned from the well. Many attempts have recently been made to improve the viscoelastic properties, temperature, and salt resistance of VES fluids to make them a cost-effective alternative to polymer gels. This review aims at describing the novel concepts and advancements in the fundamental science of VES-based fracturing fluids reported in the last few years, which have not yet been widely industrially implemented, but are significant for prospective future applications. Recent achievements, reviewed in this paper, include the use of oligomeric surfactants, surfactant mixtures, hybrid nanoparticle/VES, or polymer/VES fluids. The advantages and limitations of the different VES fluids are discussed. The fundamental reasons for the different ways of improvement of VES performance for fracturing are described.

Dual Transient Networks of Polymer and Micellar Chains: Structure and Viscoelastic Synergy

Dual transient networks were prepared by mixing highly charged long wormlike micelles of surfactants with polysaccharide chains of hydroxypropyl guar above the entanglement concentration for each of the components. The wormlike micelles were composed of two oppositely charged surfactants potassium oleate and n-octyltrimethylammonium bromide with a large excess of anionic surfactant. The system is macroscopically homogeneous over a wide range of polymer and surfactant concentrations, which is attributed to a stabilizing effect of surfactants counterions that try to occupy as much volume as possible in order to gain in translational entropy. At the same time, by small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) combined with ultrasmall-angle neutron scattering (USANS), a microphase separation with the formation of polymer-rich and surfactant-rich domains was detected. Rheological studies in the linear viscoelastic regime revealed a synergistic 180-fold enhancement of viscosity and 65-fold increase of the longest relaxation time in comparison with the individual components. This effect was attributed to the local increase in concentration of both components trying to avoid contact with each other, which makes the micelles longer and increases the number of intermicellar and interpolymer entanglements. The enhanced rheological properties of this novel system based on industrially important polymer hold great potential for applications in personal care products, oil recovery and many other fields.

Double dynamic hydrogels formed by wormlike surfactant micelles and cross-linked polymer

HYPOTHESIS

Interpenetrating networks consisting of a polymer network with dynamic cross-links and a supramolecular network allow obtaining hydrogels with significantly enhanced mechanical properties.

EXPERIMENTS

Binary hydrogels composed of a dynamically cross-linked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) network and a transient network of entangled highly charged mixed wormlike micelles (WLMs) of surfactants (potassium oleate and n-octyltrimethylammonium bromide) were prepared and studied by rheometry, SANS, USANS, cryo-TEM, and NMR spectroscopy.

FINDINGS

Binary hydrogels show significantly enhanced rheological properties (a 3400-fold higher viscosity and 27-fold higher plateau modulus) as compared to their components taken separately. This is due to the microphase separation leading to local concentrating of PVA and WLMs providing larger number of polymer-polymer contacts for cross-linking and longer WLMs with more entanglements. Such materials are very promising for the application in many areas, ranging from enhanced oil recovery to biomedical uses.

Disruption of Cationic/Anionic Viscoelastic Surfactant Micellar Networks by Hydrocarbon as a Basis of Enhanced Fracturing Fluids Clean-Up

Studies of the effects produced by the solubilization of hydrophobic substances by micellar aggregates in water medium are quite important for applications of viscoelastic surfactant solutions for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), especially in hydraulic fracturing technology. The present paper aims at the investigation of the structural transformations produced by the absorption of an aliphatic hydrocarbon (n-decane) by mixed wormlike micelles of cationic (n-octyltrimethylammonium bromide, C8TAB) and anionic (potassium oleate) surfactants enriched by C8TAB. As a result of contact with a small amount (0.5 wt%) of oil, a highly viscoelastic fluid is transformed to a water-like liquid. By small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) combined with cryo-TEM, it was shown that this is due to the transition of long wormlike micelles with elliptical cross-sections to ellipsoidal microemulsion droplets. The non-spherical shape was attributed to partial segregation of longer- and shorter-tail surfactant molecules inside the surfactant monolayer, providing an optimum curvature for both of them. As a result, the long-chain surfactant could preferably be located in the flatter part of the aggregates and the short-chain surfactant—at the ellipsoid edges with higher curvature. It is proven that the transition proceeds via a co-existence of microemulsion droplets and wormlike micelles, and upon the increase of hydrocarbon content, the size and volume fraction of ellipsoidal microemulsion droplets increase. The internal structure of the droplets was revealed by contrast variation SANS, and it was shown that, despite the excess of the cationic surfactant, the radius of surfactant shell is controlled by the anionic surfactant with longer tail. These findings open a way for optimizing the performance of viscoelastic surfactant fluids by regulating both the mechanical properties of the fluids and their clean-up from the fracture induced by contact with hydrocarbons.

Growth of wormlike micelles of surfactant induced by embedded polymer: role of polymer chain length

Incorporation of polymer chains into wormlike surfactant micelles, which find a large range of applications, offers the opportunity to modify their structure and properties. In this paper, using spectroscopic, scattering and rheological techniques and computer simulations, we study the incorporation of poly(4-vinylpyridine) of two different molecular weights (MWs) into entangled networks of wormlike surfactant micelles of potassium oleate. Using NMR-spectroscopy we show that, independent of its MW, the polymer incorporates into the core-corona interface of the surfactant micelles. According to SANS data, the polymer does not alter the micelle structure or the micelle radius, but diminishes the packing density of the surfactant. At the same time, rheology reveals a stark difference between the surfactant networks with embedded polymers of different MWs. Networks with the higher-MW polymer possess larger viscosity and a longer relaxation time, which we attribute to the larger length of the hybrid micelles. Moreover, we demonstrate that in an intermediate concentration range the higher-MW polymer is able to link neighbouring surfactant micelles together, which has never been previously observed. However, with a further increase in polymer content the micelles become smaller due to the high breaking susceptibility of the boundaries of polymer-containing sections, leading to the stabilization of micellar end-caps by the embedded macromolecules. This process is more prominent in the case of the shorter polymer. Our finding that an increased MW of macromolecules permits the formation of longer hybrid micelles and enhances their rheological properties is of obvious importance for the fundamental understanding of polymer-surfactant interactions and the development of new industrial formulations based on hybrid polymer-wormlike surfactant micelles.

Soft magnetic nanocomposites based on adaptive matrix of wormlike surfactant micelles

A network of wormlike surfactant micelles with embedded magnetic particles demonstrates high magnetoresponsive linear viscoelastic properties due to tunable matrix.

Viscoelastic system from mixing cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and poly(styrene-co-methacrylic acid) in aqueous solution

A viscoelastic system was developed by forming hybrid wormlike micelles with poly(styrene-co-methacrylic acid) (P(St-co-MAA)) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in aqueous solution.

A dual-modality photoswitchable supramolecular polymer

Covalent or noncovalent linked polymers with stimuli-responsive properties have been well researched as a kind of advanced functional materials. However, little effort has been devoted to establishing a bridge for switching between covalent polymers and noncovalent polymers. Actually, such unitive system is promising because it can combine their chemical advantages of two types of polymers in a single and tunable platform. Herein, by taking advantage of reversible photodimerization of coumarins and host-guest assemblies with γ-cyclodextrin (γ-CD), we demonstrate a simple and effective way to construct a dual-modality supramolecular polymer, which can be switched between a noncovalent polymer and its corresponding covalent polymer in response to light stimuli. Moreover, this unique switchable polymer can also be employed to construct a dual-stimuli responsive supramolecular hydrogel with the surfactant cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). This methodology establishes a bridge between the two "polymer mansions" and is promising to open a new class of photoswitchable materials.