Pretransitional Effects Near the Hexagonal−Micellar Phase Transition of the C12EO6/H2O Lyotropic Mixture

Long-living intermediates during a lamellar to a diamond-cubic lipid phase transition: a small-angle X-ray scattering investigation

To generate nanostructured vehicles with tunable internal organization, the structural phase behavior of a self-assembled amphiphilic mixture involving poly(ethylene glycol) monooleate (MO-PEG) and glycerol monooleate (MO) is studied in excess aqueous medium by time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) in the temperature range from 1 to 68 degrees C. The SAXS data indicate miscibility of the two components in lamellar and nonlamellar soft-matter nanostructures. The functionalization of the MO assemblies by a MO-PEG amphiphile, which has a flexible large hydrophilic moiety, appears to hinder the epitaxial growth of a double diamond (D) cubic lattice from the lamellar (L) bilayer structure during the thermal phase transition. The incorporated MO-PEG additive is found to facilitate the formation of structural intermediates. They exhibit greater characteristic spacings and large diffusive scattering in broad temperature and time intervals. Their features are compared with those of swollen long-living intermediates in MO/octylglucoside assemblies. A conclusion can be drawn that long-living intermediate states can be equilibrium stabilized in two- or multicomponent amphiphilic systems. Their role as cubic phase precursors is to smooth the structural distortions arising from curvature mismatch between flat and curved regions. The considered MO-PEG functionalized assemblies may be useful for preparation of sterically stabilized liquid-crystalline nanovehicles for confinement of therapeutic biomolecules.

Memory effects across surfactant mesophases

We report a detailed analysis of deuteron NMR spectra of micellar, lamellar, cubic, and hexagonal mesophases in the aqueous non-ionic surfactant system C(12)E(6)/water. Samples are prepared with and without shear. Particular attention is paid to an interesting temperature-driven phase sequence that includes all of the above phases that are studied before and after shear parallel or perpendicular to the magnetic field direction. Surprising memory effects are found across mesophase transitions. These memory effects provide clues to the structure of the various phases.

Movement of Proteins in an Environment Crowded by Surfactant Micelles: Anomalous versus Normal Diffusion

Small proteins move in crowded cell compartments by anomalous diffusion. In many of them, e.g., the endoplasmic reticulum, the proteins move between lipid membranes in the aqueous lumen. Molecular crowding in vitro offers a systematic way to study anomalous and normal diffusion in a well controlled environment not accessible in vivo. We prepared a crowded environment in vitro consisting of hexaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C(12)E(6)) nonionic surfactant and water and observed lysozyme diffusion between elongated micelles. We have fitted the data obtained in fluorescence correlation spectroscopy using an anomalous diffusion model and a two-component normal diffusion model. For a small concentration of surfactant (below 4 wt %) the data can be fitted by single-component normal diffusion. For larger concentrations the normal diffusion fit gave two components: one very slow and one fast. The amplitude of the slow component grows with C(12)E(6) concentration. The ratio of diffusion coefficients (slow to fast) is on the order of 0.1 for all concentrations of surfactant in the solution. The fast diffusion is due to free proteins while the slow one is due to the protein-micelle complexes. The protein-micelle interaction is weak since even in a highly concentrated solution (35% of C(12)E(6)) the amplitude of the slow mode is only 10%, despite the fact that the average distance between the micelles is the same as the size of the protein. The anomalous diffusion model gave the anomaly index (r(2)(t) approximately t(alpha)), alpha monotonically decreasing from alpha = 1 (at 4% surfactant) to alpha = 0.88 (at 37% surfactant). The fits for two-component normal diffusion and anomalous diffusion were of equally good quality, but the physical interpretation was only straightforward for the former.

Role of dislocation loops on the elastic constants of lyotropic lamellar phases

We study the role of dislocation loops defects on the elasticity of lamellar phases by investigating the variation of the lamellar elastic constants, B and K, induced by the proliferation of these defects. We focus our interest on one particular lamellar phase made up of a mixture of C(12)E(5) and DMPC in water, which is already well-characterised. This lamellar phase undergoes a second-order (or weakly first-order) lamellar-to-nematic phase transition at about 19 degrees C and dislocation loops are seen to proliferate within the lamellar structure when temperature is decreased below 30 degrees C. The values of both elastic constants of this given lamellar phase are measured as a function of temperature, approaching the lamellar-to-nematic transition, with the help of Quasi-Elastic Light Scattering (QELS) on oriented lamellar phases. Very surprisingly we observe a strong and rapid increase in both Band K as the lamellar-to-nematic transition temperature is approached. These increases are seen to start as soon as dislocation loops can be observed in the lamellar phase. We interpret our results as being the consequence of the appearance and proliferation of dislocation loops within the lamellar structure. According to a simple model we developed we show that B and K are proportional to the density of dislocation loops in the lamellar phase.

Ordering in Surfactant Mixtures Induced by Polymers

We studied ternary mixtures of nonionic surfactant (C12E6, n-dodecyl hexaoxyethylene glycol monoether), polymer (PEG, polyethylene glycol), and water. A small amount of PEG induces demixing into the polymer-rich and surfactant-rich phases in the ternary PEG/C12E6/water mixture. Above a certain concentration and/or molecular weight of PEG, the surfactant-rich phase orders, even in a solution consisting of a few percent of surfactant. The phase boundary acts as a semipermeable membrane, and the equilibrium is determined by the chemical potential of water in two phases. The explicit expression for the amount of PEG needed to order C12E6 water solution is given and verified experimentally. The analysis of the coexistence conditions leads to the conjecture that only two oxygen atoms in the outward part of the hydrophilic surfactant head strongly affect the chemical potential of water. Our methodology is generic, i.e., on the same basis one can design a similar experiment for any surfactant/polymer/water system and find the right proportions of polymer that induce order in a surfactant-rich phase.

Effect of Adding an Amphiphilic Solubilization Improver, Sucrose Distearate, on the Solubilization Capacity of Nonionic Microemulsions

We have studied the effect of adding sucrose distearate (2C(18)SE) on the solubilization capacity of microemulsions formed in the water/C(12)EO(6)/n-decane system. Upon addition of 2C(18)SE to the binary water/C(12)EO(6) system, a lamellar liquid crystal region developed. This suggests that the rigidity of the surfactant layer is strengthened. The solubilization of water and n-decane in the bicontinuous microemulsions increases about three times upon replacing 10% C(12)EO(6) with 2C(18)SE; besides, the HLB temperature is not greatly affected by 2C(18)SE. On the other hand, sucrose monostearate (C(18)SE) does not have such a function. The effect of added 2C(18)SE on the solubilization capacity of the discrete droplet-type o/w or w/o microemulsions was also studied. The efficiency of the solubilization-improving effect is reduced when the system is far from the HLB temperature. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Diffusion coefficients in a lamellar lyotropic phase: evidence for defects connecting the surfactant structure

We measure diffusion coefficients in the lamellar phase of the nonionic binary system C(12)EO(6)/H(2)O using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. The diffusion coefficient across the lamellae shows an abrupt increase upon approaching the lamellar-isotropic phase transition. We interpret this feature in terms of defects connecting the surfactant structure. An estimation of the defect density and of the variation in defect energy close to the transition is given in terms of a simple model.