d-Mannitol based surfactants for cosmetic and food applications and hydrogels to produce stabilized Ag nanoparticles

A series of mannitol based amphiphiles were synthesized based mainly on renewable resources. All these amphiphiles are surfactants with excellent foaming abilities and low CMC values. Their surface-active properties (foaming and emulsifying) with the variation of hydrocarbon chains have been thoroughly investigated. Notably, they all produce very stable hydrogels. The thermal stability of the hydrogel is strongly influenced by the length of the hydrocarbon chain of the lipophilic part of the molecules. Different spectroscopic and microscopic techniques were used to study the morphology of the hydrogels and the driving force leading to hydrogel formation. Besides that, such hydrogel was used as a scaffold to stabilize in situ formed silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) through their capping action. Such synthesized Ag NPs have a narrow size distribution with a mean population of around 13.5 nm, as confirmed by a high-resolution transmission electron microscopy study.