Within chemical compound surfactants, pentaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C12E5) is a nonionic surfactant. It is formed by the ethoxylation chemical reaction of dodecanol (lauryl alcohol) to give a material with 5 repeat units of ethylene glycol.
Within the study of biological membranes and cell biology, for vesicle formation, the lamellar phase at 40wt% solution of C12E5 dissolved in D2O form multilamellar vesicles under shear rate.[1]