Photo-induced transformation from wormlike to spherical micelles based on pyrrolidinium ionic liquids

A UV-induced self-assembly based on N-methyl-N-cetylpyrrolidinium bromide (C16MPBr) and sodium (4-phenylazo-phenoxy)-acetate (AzoNa) was fabricated in the present work through facile mixing of C16MPBr and trans-AzoNa in water. Due to the trans-cis photoisomerization functionality of the AzoNa, this self-assembly possesses photo-responsive properties. Under ambient conditions, the morphology of the self-assembly was wormlike micelles with a high viscosity of about 10 Pa s, whereas after applying UV light, the self-assembly transformed into spherical micelles with a dramatically lowered viscosity of about 0.01 Pa s. Different from most reported photo-responsive wormlike micelles consisting of conventional cationic surfactant CTAB, our system was constructed from a novel pyrrolidinium ionic liquid. We hope this study may provide a deeper understanding of photo-responsive wormlike micelles constructed by cationic surfactants and photo-sensitive additives in water.