Synthesis and Aggregation Behavior of Jellyfish-Shaped Triazine Hexamer Quaternary Ammonium Chloride Surfactant

A novel jellyfish-shaped triazine hexamer quaternary ammonium chloride surfactant (TH₁₂QC) was synthesized, which consisted of one triazine spacer group and six long flexible hydrophobic chains. The molecular structure and aggregation behavior of TH₁₂QC was investigated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), surface tension, electrical conductivity, dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), etc. The results show that the jellyfish-shaped TH₁₂QC has better surface activity and lower surface tension than traditional ionic and Gemini surfactants in aqueous solution. There are two inflection points in the curve of conductivity versus concentration of the TH₁₂QC aqueous solution, which correspond to the critical aggregation concentration (CAC) and the critical micelle concentration (CMC) respectively. The existence of CAC indicates that there is a pre-aggregation process before TH₁₂QC forms micelles. The results of DLS and TEM show that network pre-aggregation, spherical aggregation and dense spherical aggregation were observed in different concentration of TH₁₂QC aqueous solution, and the electrostatic equilibrium of the system subtly depends on the concentration of the solution. In addition, intramolecular and intermolecular hydrogen bonding is also an important factor. This study provides a method for studying the aggregation behavior and morphology of oligomeric surfactants with rigid spacer groups.