A Coarse-Grained Model for Microbial Lipopeptide Surfactin and Its Application in Self-Assembly.

Biosurfactants exhibit outstanding interfacial properties and unique biological activities that fairly related to their self-assembly in solutions and at interfaces. Computational simulations provide structural details of biosurfactant aggregates at the molecular level relevant to thermodynamic properties, but the understanding of kinetics of self-assembly remains limited due to lower simulation efficiency. In this work, a coarse-grained model has been developed for microbial lipopeptide surfactin, and surfactin monolayer at the octane/water interface and micelle in aqueous solution were studied using molecular dynamics simulations.

A novel binary flooding system of a biobased surfactant and hydrophobically associating polymer with ultralow interfacial tensions.

The alkali free surfactant-polymer flooding system with ultralow interfacial tension is a challenge in enhanced oil recovery at present. A novel alkali free binary flooding system of a biobased zwitterionic surfactant and hydrophobically associating polymer with ultralow interfacial tension at a low surfactant dosage was studied in this paper.