Physical Characteristics of Detergents

Physicial properties of detergents commonly used in membrane protein purification.

Source: Molecular Cloning, Green and Sambrook, 2012

Detergent	Formula Weight (g/mol)	Critical micellar concentration CMC* (mM)	Critical micellar concentration CMC (%)	Aggregation Number**	Micellar Size (kDa)
NONIONIC
n-Octyl-B-D-glucopyranoside	292.4	18	0.53%	78	23
n-Octyl-B-D-thioglucopyranoside	308.4	9	0.28%
n-Nonyl-B-D-glucopyranoside	306.4	6.5	0.20%	133	41
n-Decyl-B-D-glucopyranoside	320.4	2.2	0.07%
n-Decyl-B-D-maltopyranoside	482.6	1.8	0.087%	69	33
n-Undecyl-B-D-maltopyranoside	496.6	0.59	0.029%	74	37
n-Dodecyl-B-D-maltopyranoside	510.6	0.17	0.0087%	78-149	40-76
n-Tridecyl-B-D-maltopyranoside	524.6	0.033	0.0017%	105	55
Digitonin	1229.3	0.5	0.06%	60	70
C8E4	306.5	8	0.25%	82	25
C10E6	423	0.9	0.025%	40	17
C12E8	539	0.09	0.00048%	123	66
Triton X-100***	647	0.23	0.015%	75-165	49-107
Triton X-114***	536	0.2	0.011%
Nonidet P40 (NP40)***	603	50	0.05-0.3%	100-155	60-95
ANIONIC
Cholate	430.6	9.5	0.41%	2-3	1
Deoxycholate	414.6	6	0.24%	22	9
Taurocholate	537.7	3-11	0.16-0.59%	4	2
Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)****	288.4	2.6	0.075%	62-101	18-29
Zwitterionic
CHAPS	614.9	8	0.49%	10	6
CHAPSO	630.9	8	0.50%	11	7
LDAO	229.4	2	0.023%	76	17
Fos-Choline-10	323.4	11	0.35%	24	8
Fos-Choline-12	351.5	1.5	0.047%	50-60	18-21
Fos-Choline-14	379.5	1.2	0.00446%	108	71
Zwittergent 3-12	335.6	3	0.094%	55-87	18-29
Zwittergent 2-14	363.6	0.2	0.007%	93-130	34-47

* CMC varies with pH, ionic strength, temperature as well as the presence of proteins, lipids and other detergent molecules.
** Aggregation number is the number of detergent monomers in a micelle.
*** Triton and NP40 detergents are chemically heterogeneous and therefore are less favorable for structural studies.
**** Limited solubility at 4°C.