Self-Assembly of Rhamnolipids Bioamphiphiles: Understanding Structure-Properties Relationship using Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering
Abstract
The structure-properties relationship of rhamnolipids, RLs, well known microbial bioamphiphiles (biosurfactants), is exlored in detail by coupling cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) and both ex situ and in situ small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The self-assembly of three RLs with reasoned variation of their molecular structure (RhaC10, RhaC10C10 and RhaRhaC10C10) and a rhamnose-free C10C10 fatty acid is studied in water as a function of pH. It is found that RhaC10 and RhaRhaC10C10 form micelles in a broad pH range and RhaC10C10 undergoes a micelle-to-vesicle transition from basic to acid pH occurring at pH 6.5. Modelling coupled to fitting SAXS data allows a good estimation of the hydrophobic core radius (or length), the hydrophilic shell thickness, the aggregation number and the surface area per RL. The essentially micellar morphology found for RhaC10 and
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Cite
@article{arxiv.2306.14612,
title = {Self-Assembly of Rhamnolipids Bioamphiphiles: Understanding Structure-Properties Relationship using Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering},
author = {Niki Baccile and Alexandre Poirier and Javier Perez and Petra Pernot and Patrick Legriel and Christian C. Blesken and Conrad Müller and Lars Blank and Till Tiso},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.14612},
year = {2023}
}