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Science 5 February 1999:
Vol. 283. no. 5403, pp. 816 - 819
DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5403.816
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Reports

Self-Assembly of Flat Nanodiscs in Salt-Free Catanionic Surfactant Solutions

Th. Zemb, 1* M. Dubois, 1 B. Demé, 2 Th. Gulik-Krzywicki 3

Discs of finite size are a very rare form of stable surfactant self-assembly. It is shown that mixing of two oppositely charged single-chain surfactants can produce rigid nanodiscs as well as swollen lamellar liquid crystals with frozen bilayers. The crucial requirement for obtaining nanodisc self-assembly is the use of H+ and OH- as counterions. These counterions then form water and lower the conductivity to 10 microsiemens per centimeter. In the case of cationic component excess, a dilute solution of nanodiscs is in thermodynamic equilibrium with a lamellar phase. The diameter of the cationic nanodiscs is continuously adjustable from a few micrometers to 30 nanometers, with the positive charge located mainly around the edges.

1 Service de Chimie Moléculaire (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique/Saclay), F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France.
2 Institut Laue-Langevin, F-38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
3 Centre de Génétique Moléculaire, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, F-91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: zemb{at}nanga.saclay.cea.fr

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Shape control through molecular segregation in giant surfactant aggregates.
M. Dubois, V. Lizunov, A. Meister, T. Gulik-Krzywicki, J. M. Verbavatz, E. Perez, J. Zimmerberg, and T. Zemb (2004)
PNAS 101, 15082-15087
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Gaussian curvature and the equilibrium among bilayer cylinders, spheres, and discs.
H.-T. Jung, S. Y. Lee, E. W. Kaler, B. Coldren, and J. A. Zasadzinski (2002)
PNAS 99, 15318-15322
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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