High-throughput methodology applied to screening of carbohydrate-based surfactant interfacial properties for colloidal system formulations

Carbohydrate-based surfactants (CBS) constitute an attractive class of amphiphilic molecules owing to their structural diversity generating a wide range of properties which could be developed in food and non-food applications. Based on many functional groups of the carbohydrate part, it is possible to design multiple amphiphilic structures of CBS varying in the hydrophilic head groups (mono-, oligo-, or polysaccharides), hydrophobic tail (mono-, di-, tricatenar) but also in the linker/spacer between them. The main structures of CBS include mono- and bicatenar glycolipids, bolaforms, and gemini. Moreover, CBS compounds can be produced from the most abundant renewable materials allowing large product concept possibilities. Among general properties of surfactants, interfacial properties molecules occupy a fundamental key role for colloidal system formulations since they control most of technological aptitudes required for forming and stabilizing food, cosmetic, agrochemical, detergent, and pharmaceutical products. High-throughput methodology applied to screening of CBS interfacial properties appears crucial for achieving optimum formulations of colloidal systems like foams and emulsions for which small amounts of single or mix surface-active agents are often needed and numerous physical and chemical parameters are involved. This general approach may be applied to any amphiphilic molecules produced from other renewable resources of surface-active compounds like micro-organisms and by direct extraction from vegetable materials. One of the key factors for the development of this methodology is the use of automated instrument systems in laboratory scale which are still lacking in this field compared to those existing in the analytical chemistry and biochemistry areas.