Monomeric and polymeric anionic gemini surfactants and mixed surfactant systems in micellar electrokinetic chromatography. Part I: characterization and application as novel pseudostationary phases.

Sodium di(undecenyl) tartarate monomer (SDUT), a vesicle-forming amphiphilic compound possessing two hydrophilic carboxylate head groups and two hydrophobic undecenyl chains gemini surfactant, was prepared and polymerized to form a polymeric gemini surfactant (i.e., poly-SDUT). These anionic surfactant systems with carboxylate (SDUT and poly-SDUT) and sulfate (sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS) head groups as well as mixed surfactant systems (SDS/SDUT, SDS/poly-SDUT, and SDUT/poly-SDUT) were then applied as novel pseudostationary phases in micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC). The SDUT and poly-SDUT were characterized using various analytical techniques. Retention factors of 36 benzene derivatives were calculated in 20 mM phosphate buffer of each surfactant system. The retention factor values of the test solutes show that there are distinctive selectivity differences between the surfactant systems. Solute-pseudostationary phase interactions in MEKC were also examined by determining the free energy of transfer of the substituted functional groups from the aqueous buffer phase into the pseudostationary phase.