Interfacial Dilational Rheology of Sodium Lauryl Glycine and Mixtures with Conventional Surfactants

Amino acid-based surfactants are environmentally friendly surfactants, which have aroused increasing interest. In the application of amino acid-based surfactants, they are often compounded with other kinds of surfactants to obtain formulations that meet certain requirements. Herein, sodium lauroyl glycinate (C12-Gly-Na) was selected as a representative amino acid-based surfactant to compound with an anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulfate SDS]), a cationic surfactant (dodecyl trimethyl ammonium Bromide), and a nonionic surfactant (Triton X-100: p-octyl polyethylene glycol phenyl ether). Surface tension measurements and interfacial dilational rheological experiments were performed to study the interfacial behaviors of C12-Gly-Na and its mixtures. The results show that mixture systems have better interfacial activity than individual C12-Gly-Na and there is an obvious synergy between C12-Gly-Na and C12TAB under strong electrostatic attraction. Thus, the C12-Gly-Na/C12TAB mixture shows lower critical micelle concentration (CMC) and γ_CMC and higher dilational modulus than the individual surfactants. Besides, the film formed by the C12-Gly-Na/C12TAB mixture has higher viscoelasticity than single C12-Gly-Na and its mixtures with SDS and TX-100. With the increase of bulk concentration, the dilational moduli of C12-Gly-Na, C12-Gly-Na/SDS, and C12-Gly-Na/TX-100 run through two maxima, while, due to stronger electrostatic attraction, only one maximum appears in the C12-Gly-Na/C12TAB system. The study of the interfacial properties of amino acid surfactant and its mixtures with other surfactants provides a theoretical foundation for potential applications in cosmetic, food processing, and daily chemical industries.