title: In situ gamma ray-initiated polymerization to stabilize surface micelles.
abstract: Surfactant molecules containing hydrophobic long alkyl chains and hydrophilic groups can organize into various micellar structures both in bulk solution and at interface. However, because of the dynamical nature of surfactant micelles, efforts directed at fixing their structures in bulk solution by polymerization have met with limited success. Herein, we report a unique and simple method of stabilizing surface micelles of a low molecular weight surfactant 11-acryloyloxyundecyltriethylammonium bromide (AUTEAB) through in situ intramicellar polymerization on the mica surface. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) observations show that the cylindrical micellar structure formed by AUTEAB monomers at the mica/water interface is preserved after the in situ polymerization, and the stability of the polymerized surface micelles is greatly enhanced compared with that of the unpolymerized ones.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10008, Key Lab for Supramolecular Structure & Materials, Jilin University, Changchun, 130023, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Mingfeng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Shichun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang