Surfactant Headgroup Orientation at the Air/Water Interface

摘要

Surfactants are prevalent in consumer products,biological systems,and industrial processes.Consequently,a molecular-level understanding of how surfactants bond and orient at surfaces has ramifications for many of the economic,health,and environmental issues of today.Some of the most common surfactants used in commercial products consist of a charged headgroup and an extended hydrophobic alkyl chain.The behavior of such charged surfactants at an interface is largely dependent on the molecular characteristics of the polar headgroup and its structure,orientation,solvation,and interaction with adjacent surfactants.To date,much has been learned about surfactant behavior at aqueous surfaces using spectroscopic methods,such as vibrational sum-frequency spec-troscopy.