Chitobiose as CO₂-responsive bridge: constructing wormlike micelles with sodium 2-(dodecanoyloxy)ethanesulfonate.

Authors

Meng Mu, Heng Liu, Xing Zhang, Zhenqiang Mao, Ran Liu, Xiangyu Zhang, Xin Su, Di Qi, Yanhong Peng, Mingmin Zhang

Published in

Soft matter. Sep 24, 2026. Epub Sep 24, 2026.

Abstract

Stimuli-responsive wormlike micelles (WLMs) have garnered widespread attention as intelligent soft materials, but most existing CO₂-switchable WLM systems are based on synthetic or petroleum-derived components that are toxic and non-biodegradable. To address the above problem, we have constructed a fully bio-based, ultra-low-toxicity CO₂-responsive pseudo-Gemini WLM system using sodium 2-(dodecanoyloxy)ethanesulfonate (SLI) and chitobiose, a renewable disaccharide derived from chitin. After CO₂ sparging, the primary amine of chitobiose is protonated and electrostatically binds two SLI anions to form a pseudo-gemini structure, which increases the packing parameter, and thus drives the formation of long-entangled wormlike micelles; this has been verified by cryo-TEM and rheology. The system can switch between a low-viscosity Newtonian fluid (η₀ ≈ 2.5 mPa s) and a highly viscoelastic fluid (η₀ ≈ 8500 mPa s) reversibly multiple times, with a ∼3400-fold amplitude, and has good cycling stability. The system also has an import of 78% ± 5% biodegradation in 21 days (OECD 301B) and is very gentle on the skin; it significantly outperforms traditional SDS/TMPDA. The green route can provide a good platform for CO₂-switchable soft materials and will have all sorts of applications in biomedicine, food additives and personal care products.

PMID:
42779460
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 24 Sep 2026.

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