Surfactants with their diverse activities have been recently involved in controlling the spread of new coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic as they are capable of disrupting the membrane surrounding the virus. Using hybrids approach,
we constructed a novel series of cationic surfactant-sulfonamide conjugates (3a-g) through quaternization
of the as-prepared sulfonamide derivatives (2a-g) with n-hexadecyl iodide followed by structural characterization
by spectroscopy (IR and NMR). Being collective properties required in petroleum-processing environment,
the petro-collecting/dispersing capacities on the surface of waters with different degrees of mineralization, and
the antimicrobial performance against microbes and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) that mitigate microbiological
corrosion were investigated for the synthesized conjugates. Among these conjugates, 3g (2.5% aq. solution)
exhibited the strongest ability to disperse the thin petroleum film on the seawater surface, whereas KD is 95.33%
after 96 h. In diluted form, 3f collected the petroleum layer on distilled water surface (Kmax = 32.01) for duration
exceeds 4 days. Additionally, almost all compounds revealed high potency and comparable action with standard
antimicrobials, especially 3b and 3f, which emphasize their role as potential biocides. Regarding biocidal activity
against SRB, 3g causes a significant reduction in the bacterial count from 2.8 × 106 cells/mL to Nil. Moreover,
the conducted molecular docking study confirms the strong correlation between RNA polymerase binding with
bioactivity against microbes over other studied proteins (threonine synthase and cyclooxygenase-2).