An easy synthetic procedure in two or three steps from perfluoroalkylethyl iodide derivatives led to six novel fluorinated carboxylates monomeric and gemini surfactants with one or two hydrophobic tails, respectively: RF(C2H4)CH(CO2(-))2,2Na(+) and [RF(C2H4)]2C(CO2(-)),Na(+), where RF = C4F9, C6F13, and C8F17. These anionic surfactants exhibited very low surface tension from 15 to 33 mN/m as well as low critical micelle concentration until 1.3 × 10(-4) mol/L. Furthermore, the surface properties of the gemini compound with two short fluoroalkyl chains (RF = C4F9) were found to be almost equal to those of the monomeric surfactant with one long fluoroalkyl chain (RF = C8F17), which could provide an interesting alternative to the bioaccumulative long-chain perfluorinated surfactant.