Nanostructures from self-assembling triazine tertiary amine N-oxide amphiphiles.

ABSTRACT

A new set of amphiphilic tertiary amine N-oxides has been prepared and their self-assembly properties observed in aqueous solution by tensiometry, dynamic and static light scattering. X-ray crystallographic analysis of parent amines and sulfoxide congeners indicates the formation of hydrogen-bonded dimers as the primary assembly unit for formation of vesicles in preference to the compact micelles typical of lauryl dimethylamine N-oxide (LDAO). 6-Benzyloxy-N,N'-bis(5-diethylaminopentylamine oxide)[1,3,5]triazine-2,4-diamine forms a 1 µm vesicle observed to entrap fluorescein. The [1,3,5]triazine core thus allows variation of the new self-assembled structures from nano- to micrometre length scales.