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https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/jcsc/127/08/1361-1367

Synthesis; critical micelle concentration; non-ionic surfactant; spectroscopy; electrochemistry.

A novel thiourea-based non-ionic surfactant 1-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-dodecanoylthiourea (4CPDT) was synthesized from decanoyl chloride, potassium thiocyanate and 4-chloroanline in high yield. The structural chemistry of the compound was done by multiple nuclear NMR (¹H, ¹³ C) and FT-IR. UV-Visible spectrophotometry and pendant drop methods were used to evaluate their critical micelle concentration in ethanol and hexane. This surfactant showed very low solubility in water, and interestingly low but well-defined, sub-millimolar critical micelle concentration (CMC) in ethanol and hexane, demonstrating that this is moderately amphiphobic. Its low value of critical micelle concentration indicates economical use for cleaning purposes and environment-friendly applications. It was also characterized by cyclic and square wave voltammetry and found to be electrochemically active giving sharp signal in different pH media.

Imdad Ullah^{1 2} Afzal Shah² Musharaf Khan³ Khalida Akhter⁴ Amin Badshah²

1. School of Chemistry, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Melbourne, Australia
2. Department of Chemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45300, Pakistan
3. Department of Biological Science, Federal College, Mardan, 27000, KP Pakistan
4. Center of Excellence in Physical Chemistry, University of Peshawar, KP 27320, Pakistan

Published

August 2015

Manuscript received

9 December 2014

Manuscript revised

18 April 2015

Accepted

24 April 2015

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