Amphiphilic dodecyl ester derivatives from aromatic amino acids: Significance of chemical architecture in interfacial adsorption characteristics

The dodecyl ester of aromatic amino acids from l-tyrosine (LET) and l-phenylalanine (LEP) have been designed and assessed for interfacial adsorption characteristics. From interfacial tension measurements, LET is found to exhibit lower interfacial area (a) at 18.95 and 50.61 إ2/molecule at the air/solution and water/hexane interface, respectively. The significant influence of OH group in tyrosine on the conformation of LET that accounts for the greater efficiency in interfacial adsorption is demonstrated from molecular modelling studies. The novel feature of fibrous network like structures of LET solutions has been established from scanning electron microscopy (SEM).