Relationships between the purity, pH, hydrophobicity (logKow) of the carbon substrate, and the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of rhamnolipid type biosurfactants (RL) were investigated using a quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) approach and are presented here for the first time. Measured and literature CMC values of 97 RLs, representing biosurfactants at different stages of purification, were considered. An arbitrary scale for RLs purity was proposed and used in the modelling. A modified evolutionary algorithm was used to create clusters of equations to optimally describe the relationship between CMC and logKow, pH and purity (the optimal equation had an R2 of 0.8366). It was found that hydrophobicity of the carbon substrate used for the biosynthesis of the RL had the most significant influence on the final CMC of the RL. Purity of the RLs was also found to have a significant impact, where generally the less pure the RL the higher the CMC. These results were in accordance with our experimental data. Therefore, our model equation may be used for controlling the biosynthesis of biosurfactants with properties targeted for specific applications.
Keywords: Biosurfactant; CMC; Prediction; Purity; QSPR; Rhamnolipid.
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