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Fascinating phenomena in Surfactant Chemistry
Author(s) -
Hoffmann Heinz
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.19940060204
Subject(s) - pulmonary surfactant , amphiphile , materials science , molecule , interphase , chemical engineering , vesicle , colloid , amphiphilic molecule , mixing (physics) , micelle , chemical physics , rod , yield (engineering) , nanotechnology , micellar solutions , aqueous solution , chemistry , organic chemistry , membrane , polymer , composite material , copolymer , physics , alternative medicine , pathology , engineering , biology , genetics , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , medicine
Abstract An amphiphilic compound such as a surfactant molecule is a very simple molecule. Yet, when dissolved in water, it spontaneously self‐assembles into a multitude of micellar structures such as globules, rods, disks, and vesicles. Even in dilute solutions containing only about 1 % of surfactant, these primary structures can organize themselves on a macroscopic scale so that the whole system in a test tube can be completely ordered. Such systems can have very remarkable macroscopic properties, for example, a yield stress, complex fluid behavior, or iridescence under illumination. The shape of the micellar structures is always determined by the area a that a surfactant molecule occupies at a micellar or bulk interphase. This area can be controlled or tuned by the mixing ratio X between surfactants or between surfactants and cosurfactants. The different assemblies which then result with the variation of X are discussed, together with the macroscopic properties of the systems and some applications where these properties are of use.