Detergents are amphipathic molecules containing both a nonpolar "tail" having aliphatic or aromatic character, and a polar "head." The ionic character of the polar head group forms the basis for broad classification of detergents; they may be ionic (charged, either anionic or cationic), nonionic (uncharged) or zwitterionic (having both positively and negatively charged groups, but with a net charge of zero).

Detergents are frequently used in cell lysis reagent formulation, for protein solubilization procedures, in wash buffers for ELISA, and for other protein research methods. Our detergents are available in three types of packaging.

Thermo Scientific™ Pierce™ Surfact-Amps™ detergents are highly purified, precisely diluted (10%) formulations that are ideal for applications or assays that are sensitive to contaminants that are present in unpurified detergents.  We test every batch to insure that our detergents contain <1.0 µeq/mL peroxides and carbonyls and package them under nitrogen, to prevent oxidization during storage.

  • Superior quality—lower measurable contaminant levels than other leading vendors
  • Accurate—precise 10% detergent solution in ultrapure water
  • Easy-to-use—solution is simple to dispense and dilute for use
  • Exceptionally pure—less than 1.0 µeq/mL peroxides and carbonyls

Table 1. Properties of common detergents

Detergent Description Aggregation Number Micelle MW MW CMC (mM) CMC % w/v Cloud Point (°C) Dialyzable
Triton X-100 Nonionic 140 90,000 647 0.24 0.0155 64 No
Triton X-114 Nonionic — — 537 0.21 0.0113 23 No
NP-40 Nonionic 149 90,000 617 0.29 0.0179 80 No
Brij®-35 Nonionic 40 49,000 1225 0.09 0.1103 >100 No
Brij-58 Nonionic 70 82,000 1120 0.077 0.0086 >100 No
Tween®-20 Nonionic — — 1228 0.06 0.0074 95 No
Tween-80 Nonionic 60 76,000 1310 0.012 0.0016 — No
Octyl Glucoside Nonionic 27 8,000 292 23-25 0.6716-0.7300 >100 Yes
Octylthio Glucoside Nonionic — — 308 9 0.2772 >100 Yes
SDS Anionic 62 18,000 288 6-8 0.1728-2304 >100 Yes
CHAPS Zwitterionic 10 6,149 615 8-10 0.4920-0.6150 >100 Yes
CHAPSO Zwitterionic 11 6,940 631 8-10 0.5048 90 Yes

Resources

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