Synthesis and Properties of Three Series Amino Acid Surfactants

Abstract Three series of surfactants with different amino acid moieties (glycine, glutamic acid and lysine) were synthesized with octanoic acid, decanoic acid, dodecanoic acid, tetradecanoic acid and glycine, glutamic acid, lysine respectively. The reaction conditions and their properties including surface activity, emulsibility and foamability were studied. For the surfactants with glycine moiety and glutamic acid moiety respectively, cmc (critical micelle concentration) and γ cmc (surface tension at cmc) decreased and surface activity enhanced as the length of carbon chain increased. The surfactants with glycine moiety exhibited the best emulsibility and foamability in the three series. The surfactants with glutamic acid moiety showed disappointing emulsibility, but their foamability was good. The surfactants with lysine moiety did not display favorable emulsibility and foamability due to the length of their double-chain.