title: Structural diversity, physicochemical properties and application of imidazolium surfactants: Recent advances.
abstract: The current review covers recent advances on development and investigation of cationic surfactants containing imidazolium headgroup, which are being extensively investigated for their self-aggregation properties and are currently being utilized in various conventional and non-conventional application areas. These surfactants are being used as: soft template for synthesis of mesoporous/microporous materials, drug and gene delivery agent, stabilizing agent for nanoparticles, dispersants for single/multi walled carbon nanotubes, antimicrobial and antifungal agent, viscosity modifiers, preparing nanocomposite materials, stabilizing microemulsions, corrosion inhibitors and catalyst for organic reactions. Recently several structural derivatives of these surfactants have been developed having many interesting physicochemical properties and they have demonstrated enormous potential in the area of nanotechnology, material science and biomedical science.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry in Faculty of Science and Technology and Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan. Electronic address: abhadani@rs.tus.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Avinash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bhadani
authors.affiliation: Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry in Faculty of Science and Technology and Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Misono
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, UGC Sponsored-Centre for Advance Studies-I, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 143 005, India.
authors.forename: Sukhprit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry in Faculty of Science and Technology and Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.affiliation: Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry in Faculty of Science and Technology and Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.affiliation: Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry in Faculty of Science and Technology and Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japan. Electronic address: abemasa@rs.noda.tus.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abe
mesh_terms: D007093:Imidazoles; D036103:Nanotechnology; D013501:Surface-Active Agents
chemical_list: D007093:Imidazoles; D013501:Surface-Active Agents
keywords: Application; Imidazolium surfactants; Physicochemical properties; Self-aggregation properties