Building a Nanoparticle Through Self Assembly

One way to manufacture nano-size particles is to create conditions which promote the self assembly of amphiphilic molecules in aqueous solutions. Amphiphilic molecules contain hydrophilic heads and hydrophobic tails. Two 

Consider a population of spherical nano-size micelles with a stable aggregation number A in a solution which also contains water and individual amphiphilic molecules (monomers). The Gibbs energy (per molecule) of the solution is 

From eq 7.42, the equilibrium fraction of amphiphilic molecules in micelles is 

Minimization of the chemical potential with respect to N gives the average area per head 

For a typical value of the oil-water interfacial tension us (20 to 30)mnm the length of the hydrophobic tail /si s2nm, and the hard-core area Uh,min = 3.10 m, eq 7.46 gives TVs40. 

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