Self-Assembling Properties of 6-O- and 6′-O-Alkylsucrose Mixtures Having Different Chain Lengths Under Aqueous Conditions

Abstract

The self-assembling properties of the 6-O- and 6′-O-alkylsucrose mixtures with different chain lengths including octyl, decyl, dodecyl, and tetradecyl under aqueous conditions were studied and compared with those of the 6-O- and 6′-O-hexadecylsucrose mixture previously reported. The title compounds were synthesized from sucrose in five steps. The results of scanning and transmission electron microscopes, powder X-ray diffraction, and dynamic light scattering measurements indicated that the self-assembling properties of octyl, decyl, and dodecyl derivatives were completely different from those of the 6-O- and 6′-O-hexadecylsucrose mixture. The three derivatives reported here primarily formed lamellar planes, which further induced the formation of vesicle-type particles under aqueous conditions, whereas the previous derivatives primarily formed spherical micelles in water, which further assembled according to face-centered cubic organization by a drying process from the aqueous dispersion. It was also found that the 6-O- and 6′-O-tetradecylsucrose mixture showed concentration-induced micelle-lamellar transition behavior in an aqueous dispersion. Furthermore, the mixing of a regioisomer, 6′-O-hexadecylsucrose, with 6-O-hexadecylsucrose induced different self-assembling properties from that of 6-O-hexadecylsucrose alone, but this effect did not appear in the self-assembling of the 6-O- and 6′-O-octylsucrose mixture.

Keywords:

• Sucrose
• Monoalkyl ether
• Self-assembly
• Micelle
• Lamellar