Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS or NaDS) (CH3(CH2)11OSO3Na) (FW 288.38), also known as sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), is an ionic detergent that is used in household products such as toothpastes, shampoos, shaving foams and bubble baths for its thickening effect and its ability to create a lather. The molecule has a tail of 12 carbon atoms, attached to a sulfate group, giving the molecule the amphiphilic properties required of a detergent.
It is prepared by sulphation of lauryl alcohol (1-dodecanol, dodecyl alcohol, CH3(CH2)10CH2OH) followed by neutralisation with sodium carbonate. It is used in both industrially produced and home-made cosmetics.
Like all detergent surfactants (including soaps), it removes oils from the skin, and can cause skin irritation. It is also irritating to the eyes.
SDS can be converted by ethoxylation to sodium laureth sulfate (also called sodium lauryl ether sulfate; SLES), which is less harsh on the skin, probably because it is not as much of a protein denaturant as is the unethoxylated substance.
In laboratories, SDS is commonly used in preparing proteins for polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). SDS works by disrupting non-covalent bonds in the proteins, thereby denaturing them, causing the molecules to lose their native shape (conformation). Also, anions of SDS bind to the main peptide chain at a ratio of one SDS anion for every two amino acid residues. This effectively imparts a negative charge on the protein that is proportional to the mass of that protein (about 1.4 g SDS/g protein). This new negative charge is significantly greater than the original negative charge of that protein. The electrostatic repulsion that is created by binding of SDS causes proteins to unfold into a rod-like shape thereby eliminating differences in shape as a factor for separation in the gel.
The critical micelle concentration in pure water is 0.0085 M, and the aggregation number at this concentration is around 50.