Abstract
Polyoxometalates (POMs) are nanometric metal-oxide anions with unique chemical and physical properties.[1] During the past decade, significant efforts have been made to graft alkyl chains on POMs to acquire surface activity and self-assembly properties, which is essential for catalysis applications and for producing organic-inorganic hybrid materials with desired nanostructures.[2-3] After having shown that POMs-based surfactants are produced spontaneously through non-covalent interactions in water by simply mixing non-ionic surfactants with the most common POMs of Keggin’s type, tungstosilicate (SiW12O404-) and tungstophosphate (PW12O403-), we now present the influence of POMs on the micellization process using tensiometry. By solving a lateral equation of state, we can explain the trend observed i.e. either an increase or a decrease of the CMC and therefore we can obtain an interaction magnitude between POMs and micelles of the order of 15kT. This value is fully consistent with the strong effects observed in the presence of POMs such as cloud point variation.[4] The description of the interaction between POMs and either ethoxy or sugar groups makes it possible to have a different insight into biological systems that contain POMs in medical applications.