Lauryldimethylamine oxide (LDAO), also known as dodecyldimethylamine oxide (DDAO), is an amine oxide based

zwitterionic surfactant Surfactants are chemical compounds that decrease the surface tension between two liquids, between a gas and a liquid, or interfacial tension between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming a ...

, with a C₁₂ (dodecyl) alkyl tail. It is one of the most frequently-used surfactants of this type. Like other amine oxide based surfactants it is antimicrobial, being effective against common bacteria such as '' S. aureus'' and ''

E. coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escher ...

'', however it is also non-denaturing and may be used to solubilize proteins. At high concentrations, LDAO forms

liquid crystal Liquid crystal (LC) is a state of matter whose properties are between those of conventional liquids and those of solid crystals. For example, a liquid crystal may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. T ...

line phases. Despite having only one polar atom that is able to interact with water – the oxygen atom (the

quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

nitrogen atom is hidden from intermolecular interactions), DDAO is a strongly amphiphilic surfactant: it forms normal micelles and normal liquid crystalline phases. High amphiphilicity of this surfactant can be explained by the fact that it forms not only very strong hydrogen bonds with water: the energy of DDAO – water hydrogen bond is about 50 kJ/mol, but it also has high experimental partition coefficient in non-polar medium, as characterized by experimental logP 5.284

References

{{reflist Amine oxides Surfactants

See also

References