Lamellar phases surfactants

In this situation, the equilibrium thickness at any given height h is determined by the balance between the hydrostatic pressure in the liquid (hpg) and the repulsive pressure in the film, that is n = hpg. Cyril Isenberg gives many beautiful pictures of soap films of different geometries in his book The Science of Soap Films and Soap Bubbles (1992). Sir Isaac Newton published his observations of the colours of soap bubbles in Opticks (1730). This experimental set-up has been used to measure the interaction force between surfactant surfaces, as a function of separation distance or film thickness. These forces are important in stabilizing surfactant lamellar phases and in cell-cell interactions, as well as in colloidal interactions generally. 

Regardless of the numerous studies of stratified films the phenomemon lacks complete quantitative explanation. However, this does not mean that progress in its understanding during the last years has not been achieved. The review of Langevin and Sonin [35] reveals the contemporary state of the problem and considers the stratification phenomenon in films from micellar solutions and films from surfactant lamellar phases. 

FIG. 13 Phase diagram of a vector lattice model for a balanced ternary amphiphilic system in the temperature vs surfactant concentration plane. W -I- O denotes a region of coexistence between oil- and water-rich phases, D a disordered phase, Lj an ordered phase which consists of alternating oil, amphiphile, water, and again amphi-phile sheets, and L/r an incommensurate lamellar phase (not present in mean field calculations). The data points are based on simulations at various system sizes on an fee lattice. (From Matsen and Sullivan [182]. Copyright 1994 APS.)... 

When comparable amounts of oil and water are mixed with surfactant a bicontinuous, isotropic phase is formed [6]. This bicontinuous phase, called a microemulsion, can coexist with oil- and water-rich phases [7,1]. The range of order in microemulsions is comparable to the typical length of the structure (domain size). When the strength of the surfactant (a length of the hydrocarbon chain, or a size of the polar head) and/or its concentration are large enough, the microemulsion undergoes a transition to ordered phases. One of them is the lamellar phase with a periodic stack of internal surfaces parallel to each other. In binary water-surfactant mixtures, or in... 

Figure 2a shows a schematic phase diagram for lyotropic liquid crystals. This figure shows the formation of micelles, cubic phases, bicontinuous cubic phases, and lamellar phases as the concentration of surfactant increases. Also shown in this figure is a schematic diagram of an ordered bicontinuous cubic phase (Fig. 2b). Another interesting example in...

Here scalar order parameter, has the interpretation of a normalized difference between the oil and water concentrations go is the strength of surfactant and /o is the parameter describing the stability of the microemulsion and is proportional to the chemical potential of the surfactant. The constant go is solely responsible for the creation of internal surfaces in the model. The microemulsion or the lamellar phase forms only when go is negative. The function/(<))) is the bulk free energy and describes the coexistence of the pure water phase (4> = —1), pure oil phase (4> = 1), and microemulsion (< ) = 0), provided that/o = 0 (in the mean-held approximation). One can easily calculate the correlation function (4>(r)(0)) — (4>(r) (4>(0)) in various bulk homogeneous phases. In the microemulsion this function oscillates, indicating local correlations between water-rich and oil-rich domains. In the pure water or oil phases it should decay monotonically to zero. This does occur, provided that g2 > 4 /TT/o — go- Because of the < ), —<(> (oil-water) symmetry of the model, the interface between the oil-rich and water-rich domains is given by... 

Figure 4.23 Synthesis space diagram for a ternary system composed of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and sodium hydroxide (H, hexagonal phase [MCM-41] C, cubic phase [MCM-48] L, lamellar phase [MCM-50] H20/Si02 = 100, reaction temperature 100°C, reaction time 10 days). (Reprinted from Science, Vol. 267, A. Firouzi, D. Kumar, L.M. Bull, T. Besier, R Sieger, Q. Huo, S.A. Walker, J.A. Zasadzinski, C. Glinka, J. Nicol, D.l. Margolese, G.D. Stucky, B.F. Chmelka, Cooperative Organization of Inorganic-Surfactant and Biomimetic Assemblies, pp. 1138-1143. Copyright 1995. With permission of AAAS.)...

Analogous gel matrices of liquid crystalline lamellar phases can also be formed with nonionie mesogens, such as the combination of cetyl/stearyl alcohol and ethoxy-lated fatty alcohol, provided that the hydrophilic and lipophilic properties of the surfactant molecules are more or less balanced to favor the formation of lamellar structures. 

Near the surfactant region the crystalline or lamellar phase is found. This is the region one finds in hand soaps. The ordinary hand soap is mainly the salt of fatty acid (coconut oil fatty acids or mixtures [85%] plus water [15%] and some salts. X-ray analyses have shown that the crystalline structure consists of a layer of soap separated by a water layer (with salts). The hand soap is produced by extruding under high pressure. This process aligns the lamellar crystalline structure lengthwise. If the degree of expansion versus temperature is measured, the expansion will be found... 

There may be limitations in applying the above model to other systems. For instance, the initial surfactant often exists as a lamellar phase as for phospholipids, so that there are no interfaces between various liquid crystalline phases whose velocities can be measured and used to determine effective dif-fusivities as in the AOT analysis above. As a result, the base of the myelinic figures must approach the base of the vertical cell as the volume of the lamellar phase shrinks, and the assumption made above that the composition of the myelins is independent of time may not be valid. 

Lamellar phases of phosphohpids and other HpophiHc surfactants can be dissolved, i.e., converted into micellar solutions, by contacting them with aqueous phases of hydrophihc surfactants, a phenomenon that is sometimes desirable and sometimes undesirable in studies of biological membranes. Often myehnic figures form during the dissolution process. Simoes et al. [33] reported rates of dissolution of various mixtures of phosphatidylchohne and the nonionic surfactant Tween 80. 

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