title: Effect of compressed CO2 on the properties of lecithin reverse micelles.
abstract: Lecithin is a very useful biosurfactant. In this work, the effects of compressed CO 2 on the critical micelle concentration (cmc) of lecithin in cyclohexane and solubilization of water, lysozyme, and PdCl 2 in the lecithin reverse micelles were studied. The micropolarity and pH value of the polar cores of the reverse micelles with and without CO 2 were also investigated. It was found that CO 2 could reduce the cmc of the micellar solution and enhance the capacity of the reverse micelles to solubilize water, the biomolecule, and the inorganic salt significantly. Moreover, the water pools could not be formed in the reverse micelles in the absence of CO 2 because of the limited amount of water solubilized. However, the water pools could be formed in the presence of CO 2 because large amounts of water could be solubilized. All of these provide more opportunity for effective utilization of this green surfactant. The possible mechanism for tuning the properties of the reverse micelles by CO 2 is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China.
authors.forename: Yueju
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jianling
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Buxing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Chaoxing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiaoying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Minqiang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Guanying
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yang