Nature of the Adsorption of Zwitterionic Surfactants at Hydrophilic Surfaces

This paper describes the adsorption of zwitterionic dodecyl-N,N-dimethylammonio alkanoates with polymethylene intercharge arms of different lengths on silica. The data presented were obtained by in situ ellipsometry, allowing time-resolved studies of the surface excess, the mean thickness, and the refractive index of thin interfacial films. It is shown that the mode of adsorption of zwitterionic surfactants is similar to that observed for ethylene-oxide-based nonionic surfactants. The interaction energy between single zwitterionic surfactants and silica is relatively weak and the adsorption process is best described in terms of surfactant self-assembly, promoted by the presence of the solid surface. The mode of adsorption is only weakly affected by increasing the number of intercharge methylene units. The surface aggregation behavior observed at the silica surface displays many parallels with the corresponding solution phase behavior. Finally, the adsorption of zwitterionic surfactants is relatively independent of the pH. However, as the pH is lowered to the pKa values of the terminal carboxyl group (i.e., as the surfactants become increasingly positively charged) desorption is observed.