Simulations Study of Single-Component and Mixed n-Alkyl-PEG Micelles.

ABSTRACT: Here, we study one-component and mixed n-alkyl-poly(ethylene glycol) (C _mE _n) micelles with varying poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chain lengths n using coarse-grained molecular simulations. These nonionic alkyl-PEG surfactants and their aggregates are widely used in bio and chemical technology. As expected, the simulations show that increasing the PEG chain length decreases the alkyl-PEG micelle core diameter and the aggregation number but also enhances PEG chain penetration to the core region and spreads the micelle corona. Both the core and corona density are heavily dependent on the PEG chain length and decrease with increasing PEG length. Furthermore, we find that the alkyl-PEG surfactants exhibit two distinct micellization modes: surfactants with short PEG chains a

SUBMITTER: Vuorte M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6150674 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature