Behavior of acetyl modified amino acids in reverse micelles: a non-invasive and physiochemical approach

The well-characterized, monodisperse nature of reverse micelles formed by sodium bis-(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate/water/isooctane and their usefulness in assimilating compounds of varied interests have been exploited to investigate the effect of acetyl modified amino acids (MAA) viz., N-acetyl-L-glycine (NAG), N-acetyl-L-aspartic acid (NAA) and N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), on the water pool and physiochemical properties. Non-invasive techniques such as FTIR and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy have been employed to analyze the interactions of MAA with core water and the AOT headgroup. The micropolarities on both sides of AOT interface have further been investigated by UV-vis absorption probes, methyl orange (MO) and methylene blue (MB). The dynamics of water and temperature induced percolation process have also been studied. The MAA molecules have been found to assist the process with the increase in water content where as a contrary behavior has been observed with the increase in temperature. Conductivity results have been further rationalized in terms of scaling equations, which delineate the dynamic nature of the percolation process. The results have also been analyzed in the light of activation energy of the percolation process and thermodynamics of droplet clustering.