Hydrotrope and hydrotrope-solubilization action of penicillin-K in CTAB/n-C5H11OH/H2O system

Penicillin potassium salt (penicillin-K) is found to show hydrotrope action, which can increase the solubility of cationic surfactant CTAB in water. Penicillin-K also shows hydrotrope-solubilization action, which makes the W/O and O/W microemulsion more stable and increases the solubilized amount of n-C5H11OH in O/W microemulsion and that of water in W/O microemulsion for CTAB/n-C5H11OH/H2O system. However, in this system, the presence of penicillin-K can decrease the stability of the lamellar liquid crystal phase due to its structure change to bicontinuous, which are proved by the mechanism of its hydrotrope-solubilization action.