Surfactants from epoxides and polyolamines based on disaccharides

Disaccharide based polyolamines were used for syntheses of sugar based surfactants. The disaccharide based polyolamines are an interesting alternative to glucamines, which often result in products of low solubility in water. Therefore we used lactamine, palatinamin and 2-hydroxy ethyl maltamin in syntheses of surfactants by conversion with long chain epoxides. Reactions under mild conditions (in methanol, 70°C) led in quantitative conversions and yields analogously to conversions of glucamines former studied. Epoxides used were α-epoxides (chain length C 8 -C 16 ) and ω-epoxy fatty acid methl esters (C 10 , C 11 and C 14 ). Examination of the surface active properties demonstrate the higher solubility (factor 5-20) of the disaccharide based surfactants in comparison with analogous glucamine derivatives, which partly results in higher surface activities. Tensiometric studies show surface tensions in the range of 29-37 mN/m and often cmc between 3-550 mg/l. Depending to structure, several of the disaccharide-derivatives show much better foaming properties than the corresponding monosaccharide-derivatives.