Novel approaches to monitoring the formation of self-assembled colloids composed of cationic surfactants and alginate polysaccharide

In actual work, the self-assembly process of alginate (Alg) polysaccharide having low molecular weight (240 kDa) with cationic surfactants from the family of trimetylammonium bromide (TAB) derivatives was investigated at wide polysaccharide/surfactant molar ratio range through the interpretation of the formation of non-aggregated colloidal complexes.On one hand, the critical micelle concentration (cmc) values of the studied TAB surfactants having C12-C18 chain length were determined and published for the first time in phosphate buffer solution. In addition to the applied conventional measurement procedures like tensiometry, light scattering, calorimetry, and equilibrium dialysis-based methods, the applicability of streaming potential technique was also demonstrated for the first time for these types of systems to gain a deeper insight into the formation process of the complexes built up by biocompatible polysaccharides and cationic surfactants. Through the interpretation of the change of the streaming potential values as a function of increasing surfactant's concentration it was clearly highlighted that both the individual and cooperative binding process of the surfactants can be clearly identified followed by the aggregation of the polysaccharide-surfactant colloidal complexes and the formation of surfactant micelles in the bulk dispersion.