Magnetic surfactants

Surfactants are ubiquitous, being important commodity chemicals with wide industrial applications, and essential components of living organisms. With stimuli-responsive surfactants, self-assembly and physicochemical properties of a wide variety of materials may be readily manipulated, both reversibly and irreversibly. Until recently, magnetically responsive surfactants had not been reported. This review reports the recent progress in magnetoresponsive surfactants, covering control of interface and bulk solution properties. The use of these magneto-surfactants as novel molecular magnets is reported, and potential applications are identified. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.