Molecular Origin of Model Membrane Bending Rigidity
- Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris, CNRS UMR8550, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris (France)
- Laboratoire d'Imagerie Parametrique, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris6, CNRS UMR7623, 15 Rue de l'ecole de medecine, 75006 Paris (France)
- Laboratoire de Physique de la Matiere Condensee, College de France, CNRS URA792, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris (France)
The behavior of the bending modulus {kappa} of bilayers in lamellar phases was studied by Small Angle X-ray Scattering technique for various nonionic C{sub i}E{sub j} surfactants. The bilayers are either unswollen and dispersed in water or swollen by water and dispersed in dodecane. For unswollen bilayers, the values of {kappa} decrease with both an increase in the area per surfactant molecule and in the polar head length. They increase when the aliphatic chain length increases at constant area per surfactant molecule. Whereas for water-swollen membranes, the values of {kappa} decrease as the content of water increases converging to the value of the single monolayer bending modulus. Such a behavior results from the decoupling of the fluctuations of the two surfactant membrane monolayers. Our results emphasize the determinant contribution of the surfactant conformation to {kappa}.
- OSTI ID:
- 20953316
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 25; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.258103; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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