Synthesis of ω-hydroxy quaternary ammonium bolaform surfactants

Several members of a novel class of omega-substituted asymmetric bolaform surfactants have been synthesized in order to investigate their surfactant and biological properties. The omega-hydroxy trialkylammonium and pyridinium surfactants have significant antimicrobial and antifungal activity relative to their conventional analogues. For conventional quaternary ammonium alkyl surfactants, increasing the hydrocarbon chain length causes a decrease in the surfactant, monomer solubility and a corresponding decrease in the biological activity. No such trend is observed for the omega-hydroxy quaternary ammonium bromide series.