85261-20-7

Non-ionic detergent for solubilizing membrane proteins

Possible impurities are decanoic acid and N-methylglycamine. The former is removed by grinding the solid with Et2O and then with pet ether and drying over P2O5. It is twice recrystallised from MeOH/Et2O by dissolving in the minimum volume of MeOH, adding Et2O and drying in a vacuum. To remove the glycamine, the solid (800mg) is dissolved in hot H2O (10mL) and set aside. Mega-10 crystallises as colourless needles. These are filtered off and dried in a vacuum to constant weight. It is a good non-ionic non-hygroscopic detergent with a critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 7.4mM (0.26%) in 0.1M Tris-HCl pH 7.4 at 25o. [Hildreth Biochem J 207 363 1982.]