2020 Volume 20 Issue 9 Pages 425-430
Amino acids are essential for maintaining life and, as such, are safe to the environment and humans. Accordingly, they have been used as components in a variety of functional materials. Amino-acid-type surfactants are one such material and are obtained by the introduction of an alkyl chain to an amino acid. Among the amino-acid-type surfactants, the most representative are N-acyl-amino-acidtype surfactants, which have good foaming properties, are less sensitive to hard water than soap, are nonirritating to the skin, and have good antibacterial activity and biodegradability. Accordingly, they are widely used in cosmetics, personal hygiene products, and food formulations. In this review, we report the air/water interfacial adsorption behavior and micelle properties in alkaline solution of a novel hydroxy-group-containing amino-acid-type surfactant, N-alkanoyl-N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-β-alanine and compare it to that of a conventional amino-acid-type surfactant without a hydroxy group, N-dodecanoylN-methyl-β-alanine.