The characteristics of Detergents

Detergents are amphipathic molecules, It has the following characteristics.

• Has an aliphatic or aromatic character
• Contains either a polar "head" and a nonpolar "tail".
• Can manipulate of hydrophobic–hydrophilic.

Properties and types of detergents

We can classification of detergents by the ionic character of the polar head group and separate them into 3 categories.

1) Ionic Detergents

• It has a hydrophilic head group
• The head group can be either negatively (anionic) or positively (cationic) charged.
• It is used for the complete disruption of cellular structures and the denaturation of proteins for separation during gel electrophoresis.

2) Nonionic Detergents

• It has a hydrophilic head group
• The head group is uncharged
• It has the ability to break lipid-lipid and lipid-protein interactions.
• It is used for isolate biologically active membrane proteins.
• It also referred to as non-denaturing detergents.

3) Zwitterionic Detergents

• It has both positively and negatively charged groups but with a net charge of zero.
• It has a neutral net charge.
• It is used for the complete disruption of cellular structures and the denaturation of proteins for separation during gel electrophoresis.
• It has the ability to breaking protein-protein bonds while maintaining the native state and charge of the individual proteins.
• Its versatility is useful for a variety of purposes, such as chromatography, electrophoresis, 2D gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry, and solubilization of organelles and inclusion bodies.

Properties of common detergents

*Table1：Detergent select table.

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Further reading:What is the critical micelle concentration (CMC)?

Further reading：