Hyperbranched polyglycerol surfactants: a modular approach

Advances in the synthesis of amphiphiles has led to a broad new range of surfactants for industrial and medical applications. Hyperbranched polyglycerols (HPGs) have been employed as a nonionic hydrophilic material with high salt stability. In this work the HPG scaffold has been used to develop a series of different surfactants for use in industrial applications. A series of HPG surfactants have been synthesized, characterized, and tested to achieve improved surfactant properties, focusing on elevation of cloud points, salt stability, emulsion stabilization, surface tension modification, greater surface activity at the critical aggregation concentration, and developing trends based on structure/property relationships. First, more conventional surfactants were synthesized by hydrophobic-tail initiated ring opening polymerization of glycidol yielding single tailed HPG surfactants. These surfactants all exhibited high salt stability and elevated cloud points. They exhibited a wide range of surface tensions at 1 wt. % surfactant in water that increased with increasing hydrophobe size. It has also been determined that the HPG architecture plays a key role in determining the cross-sectional area of the polymer surfactants and also dictates the type of emulsion formed. Second, peripherally functionalized HPG surfactants were synthesized via a Williamson ether synthesis, decorating the outside of the HPG scaffold, leading to a molecular core-shell-like architecture. Peripherally functionalized HPGs exhibited strong O/W emulsions, but water insolubility. They also exhibited strong surface tension modification. In this thesis the HPG material is shown to be a highly tunable scaffold for the design of industrially relevant nontoxic surfactants.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Materials Science & Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Knewstub, Samuel N

Contributors dc:contributor

• Zimmerman, Steven C.

• Hyperbranched: Polyglycerol: Nonionic Surfactant
• Ring-opening Polymerization
• Cloud Point

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Samuel Knewstub

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/100411

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/100411