Flexibility of hydrocarbon chains

The second source of entropy increase on micellisation may arise from an increase in the flexibility of hydrocarbon chains on their transfer from an aqueous to a hydrocarbon medium [19]. The orientations and bendings of an organic chain... 

Fig. 3.18 A depiction of the variation with temperature of the flexibility of hydrocarbon chains in a lipid bUayer. (a) At physiological temperature, the bilayer exists as a liquid crystal, in which some order exists but the chains writhe, (b) At a specific temperature, the chains are largely frozen and the bilayer is said to exist as a gel.

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