Spontaneous formation of biocompatible vesicles in aqueous mixtures of amino acid-based cationic surfactants and SDS/SDBS

Abstract

The spontaneous formation of vesicles by six amino acid-based cationic surfactants and two anionic surfactants (sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)) is reported. The head-group structure of the cationic surfactants is minutely altered to understand their effect on vesicle formation. To establish the regulatory role of the aromatic group in self-aggregation, both aliphatic and aromatic side-chain-substituted amino acid-based cationic surfactants are used. The presence of aromaticity in any one of the constituents favors the formation of vesicles by cationic/anionic surfactant mixtures. The formation of vesicles is primarily dependent on the balance between the hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity of both cationic and anionic surfactants. Vesicle formation is characterized by surface tension, fluorescence anisotropy, transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and phase diagrams. These vesicles are thermally stable up to 65°C, determined by temperature-dependent fluorescence anisotropy. According to the MTT assay, these catanionic vesicles are nontoxic to NIH3T3 cells, thus indicating their wider applicability as delivery vehicles to cells. Among the six cationic surfactants examined, tryptophan- and tyrosine-based surfactants have the ability to reduce HAuCl₄ to gold nanoparticles (GNPs), which is utilized to obtain in-situ-synthesized GNPs entrapped in vesicles without the need for any external reducing agent.