Comparative Interaction of Flavonoid Quercetin with Different Tween Surfactants

For solubilizing the flavonoid Quercetin (Qct), many mediums are adopted. Surfactant solubilization is important among them. In this work, the interaction of Qct with three nonionic tween surfactants, viz., Tween 20, Tween 40, and Tween 80 was investigated. The effect of the length of the carbon chain on the interaction was analyzed by conductometry, infrared spectroscopy, UV–visible spectroscopy, and antioxidant studies. The experimental results suggested that Tween 80 was most efficient out of the three tween surfactants taken for the study. From the conductivity studies the counterion binding constant β was used to calculate various thermodynamic parameters like Gibbs free energy, ΔG0m, enthalpy, ΔH0m, and entropy of micellization, ΔS0m. The order of stability is given as Qct-Tween 80 > Qct-Tween 20 > Qct-Tween 40. The theoretical values also corroborate the same order of interaction with the three surfactants.