Synthesis and Phase Characterization of a Double-Tailed Pyrrole-Containing Surfactant:  A Novel Tecton for the Production of Functional Nanostructured Materials

A double-tailed polymerizable (pyrrolylalkyl) ammonium amphiphile has been synthesized, and its interfacial properties and aqueous phase behavior have been studied by polarized optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The Krafft temperature is about 27 °C, and the critical micelle concentration at 40 °C is about 1 mM, as obtained from surface tension measurements, potentiometry, and isothermal titration calorimetry. The lyotropic behavior of the surfactant is found to be of a complex nature. At concentrations higher than the micellar (L1) region, two mesophases have been identified: a second isotropic (L2) phase, which is probably micellar but not fully miscible with water, and a lamellar (Lα) phase, showing interesting alignment properties. Small-angle X-ray scattering analysis of the mesophases has been evaluated in terms of a model of spherical micelles, which describes a mutual arrangement by a structure factor derived from a hard-sphere potential (Percus−Yevick, “PY”, approach). Interest in the comprehensive phase behavior of the polymerizable surfactant is based on the desire to integrate the system into a composite material to obtain potentially conducting self-assembled hybrid mesostructures.