Disordered micelles

Micellar structure has been a subject of much discussion [104]. Early proposals for spherical [159] and lamellar [160] micelles may both have merit. A schematic of a spherical micelle and a unilamellar vesicle is shown in Fig. Xni-11. In addition to the most common spherical micelles, scattering and microscopy experiments have shown the existence of rodlike [161, 162], disklike [163], threadlike [132] and even quadmple-helix [164] structures. Lattice models (see Fig. XIII-12) by Leermakers and Scheutjens have confirmed and characterized the properties of spherical and membrane like micelles [165]. Similar analyses exist for micelles formed by diblock copolymers in a selective solvent [166]. Other shapes proposed include ellipsoidal [167] and a sphere-to-cylinder transition [168]. Fluorescence depolarization and NMR studies both point to a rather fluid micellar core consistent with the disorder implied by Fig. Xm-12. 

The diffusion coefficients of this system were determined for disordered micelles and bcc spheres [47]. They were found to be retarded as compared to the disordered state. This retardation is consistent with a hindered diffusion process, D Do exp(- AxN ), with D0 being the diffusion coefficient in the absence of any interactions (i.e. for y -> 0), and A is a prefactor of order unity. Hence, the diffusion barrier increases with the enthalpic penalty xNa, where N represents the number of monomers in the foreign block. In the simplest description of hindered diffusion, the prefactor A remains constant. This model describes the experimental data poorly as A was found to increase with xNa [47]. 

Usually the discussion of the ODT of highly asymmetric block copolymers in the strong segregation limit starts from a body-centred cubic (bcc) array of the minority phase. Phase transitions were calculated using SOFT accounting for both the translational entropy of the micelles in a disordered micelle regime and the intermicelle free energy [129]. Results indicate that the ODT occurs between ordered bcc spheres and disordered micelles. 

Fig. 67 Schematic of phase behaviour for blend of novolac epoxy resin with nearly symmetric poly(methyl acrylate-co-glycidylmelhacrylate)-0-polyisoprene. Ordered L can be swollen with up to about 30% of resin before macroscopic phase separation occurs, producing heterogeneous morphologies containing various amounts of L, C, worm-like micelles and pristine epoxy. At lower concentrations, disordered worm-like micelles transform into vesicles in dilute limit. According to [201]. Copyright 2003 Wiley...

The tendency of apolar side chains of amino acids (or lipids) to reside in the interior nonaqueous environment of a protein (or membrane/micelle/vesicle). This process is accompanied by the release of water molecules from these apolar side-chain moieties. The effect is thermodynamically driven by the increased disorder (ie., AS > 0) of the system, thereby overcoming the unfavorable enthalpy change (ie., AH < 0) for water release from the apolar groups. 

However, with naturally occurring macromolecules, such as cellulose, the older fringed micelle concept is believed to apply. This represents a crystalline polymer, (it would be more correct to speak of semicrystalline or partially crystalline polymers since a material consisting of chain molecules can never be completely ordered), made up of ordered (crystalline) domains interspersed with disordered (amorphous) domains, so that each polymer chain passes through several crystalline and amorphous regions (Figure 4). 

The structure of M41S-type materials is built up of pores with amorphous walls that are formed around micelles of templating material (surfactants). One of the extreme structures of M41S-type materials (MCM-41) is a hexagonal ordering of the pores, an other extreme is a worm-hole disordered type of arrangement of the pores. A lamellar layered structure is another form in which these type of materials often (partially) appear, but this phase collapses to amorphous material upon removal of the surfactant (eg by calcination). A cubic ordering of the pores is also encountered. This form has been named MCM-48 and will not be discussed in the current paper. 

Recent work has supported early observations (e.g. Aggarwal 1976 Hashimoto et al. 1983) of a liquid micellar phase between the BCC micelle phase and the disordered phase. A representative TEM image from a spherical micellar liquid phase is shown in Fig. 2.18. Kinning and Thomas (1984) analysed SANS data obtained by Berney et al. (1982) on PS-PB diblocks and PS/PS-PB blends where the minority (PB) component formed spherical micelles with only liquid-like ordering. The Percus-Yevick model for liquids of hard spheres was used to obtain the interparticle contribution to the scattered intensity (Kinning and Thomas 1984). The ordering of an asymmetric PS-PI diblock was observed by Harkless... 

Fig. 4.13 (a) Phase diagram for aqueous solutions of Pluronic 25R8 (PPOI5PE01WPPO 5) determined using SANS, SLS, DLS and rheometry (Morlensen 1997 Mortensen el al. 1994). Phases 1 and V are disordered micellar networks, V with excess water. Phases II and III are cubic micellar phases. Phase IV is a coexistence regime of micelles and crystalline layered PEO. (b) Schematic of the micellar network. 

In subsequent work, ordering in solutions of the same matched diblock and triblock spanning a broader range of volume fractions, 0.1 < < 0.4, was explored (Hamley et al. 1997). For liquid-like and SAXS showed that there was no inter-micellar order in the liquid. Above a crossover concentration 0.2, ordering of micelles was shown by the presence of a structure factor peak. The ordered micellar structure, identified as hexagonal-packed cylinders for more concentrated solutions, persisted up to an order-disorder transition located from a discontinuity in the... 

Fig. 6.3 Schematic phase diagram for lamellar PS-PB diblocks in PS homopolymer (volume fraction 0h). where the homopolymer Mv is comparable to that of the PS block (Jeon and Roe 1994). L is a lamellar phase, I, and I2 are disordered phases, M may correspond to microphase-separated copolymer micelles in a homopolymer matrix. Point A is the order-disorder transition.The horizontal lines BCD and EFG are lines where three phases coexist at a fixed temperature and are lines of peritectic points. The lines BE and EH denote the limit of solubility of the PS in the copolymer as a function of temperature.

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