Giant brainlike aggregates from new fluorocarbon/hydrocarbon hybrid cationic surfactants

A rapid synthetic procedure in two steps from perfluoroalkylethyl iodide derivatives led to 18 novel ammonium type hybrid surfactants of the general formula: R(F)(CH(2))(2)S(CH(2))(2)N(+)(CH(3))(2)R(H)Br(-) (R(F) = C(4)F(9), C(6)F(13), C(8)F(17); R(H) = C(4)H(9), C(6)H(13), C(8)H(17), C(10)H(21), C(12)H(25), C(14)H(29)). These hybrid surfactants exhibited very low surface tension (from 16 to 25 mN/m) as well as low critical micellar concentration until 1.5 × 10(-5) mol/L. A special focus was made on aggregation phenomenon as giant multilamellar "brainlike" vesicles were observed via cryogenic scanning electron microscopy (cryoSEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM; with a contrast agent) suggesting a high encapsulation ability and a very important specific surface of these particular organizations.