Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 20 April 1990:
Vol. 248. no. 4953, pp. 354 - 356
DOI: 10.1126/science.248.4953.354
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Theory of Spontaneous Vesicle Formation in Surfactant Mixtures

S. A. Safran 1, P. Pincus 2, and David Andelman 3

1 Exxon Research and Engineering, Annandale, NJ 08801
2 Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
3 School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv Univ., Ramat Aviv, 69978 Israel

The curvature elastic energy of bilayer vesicles formed by a mixture of two surfactants, which individually form either micelles or lamellar bilayer phases is described theoretically. In the limit of large bending elastic modulus K being much greater than the temperature T, the free energy is minimized by vesicles with different concentrations of the two surfactants in each monolayer of the bilayer. Vesicles are more stable than lameliar structures only when interactions or complexing of the two surfactants is taken into account.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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 »
Self-Assembly of Flat Nanodiscs in Salt-Free Catanionic Surfactant Solutions.
T. Zemb, M. Dubois, B. Demé, and T. Gulik-Krzywicki (1999)
Science 283, 816-819
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Spontaneous liposome formation induced by grafted poly(ethylene oxide) layers: Theoretical prediction and experimental verification.
I. Szleifer, O. V. Gerasimov, and D. H. Thompson (1998)
PNAS 95, 1032-1037
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Multiple Morphologies of "Crew-Cut" Aggregates of Polystyrene-b-poly(acrylic acid) Block Copolymers.
L. Zhang and A. Eisenberg (1995)
Science 268, 1728-1731
   Abstract »    PDF »
The origins of stability of spontaneous vesicles.
H. T. Jung, B. Coldren, J. A. Zasadzinski, D. J. Iampietro, and E. W. Kaler (2001)
PNAS 98, 1353-1357
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)