Author
A. Skoulios
Bio: A. Skoulios is an academic researcher. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 98 citations.
Papers
More filters
Cited by
More filters
TL;DR: The structure of lecithin-water phases observed below the melting temperature of the hydrocarbon chains, with special emphasis on the conformation of the chains, is described in this paper.
1,059 citations
TL;DR: The thermotropic and lyotropic mesomorphism of saturated 1,2-diacyl-L-phosphatidylcholines (lecithins) has been studied by light microscopy, differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction, infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
931 citations
TL;DR: The cholesterol controls the fluidity of the hydrocarbon chains of the phospholipid by disruption of the crystalline chain lattice of the gel phase, and by inhibiting the flexing of chains in the dispersed liquid crystalline phase.
847 citations
TL;DR: A general outline of the relationship between phase structure and overall composition can be obtained from a consideration intra-and inter-micellar interactions as mentioned in this paper, which also gives some insight into the relationship of rheological properties and phase structure.
537 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, double-headed surfactants with a short spacer were used to control amphiphile self-aggregation in aqueous solution, and microstructures formed by these dimeric surfactant with m = 12 and s = 2,3 or 4 were investigated with transmission electron microscopy.
Abstract: SURFACTANT molecules in water form organized assemblies of various shapes, such as micelles and bilayer lamellae, which are of interest as analogues of biological structures, as model systems for studying complex phase behaviour and because of their technological importance, for example to the food and paint industries. The polar head groups are usually arranged randomly at the surface of these assemblies. We have studied the effect on the microstructure of these assemblies of imposing constraints on the head-group spacing. We investigate the structures formed by 'double-headed' surfactants in which two quaternary ammonium species (CmH2m+1N+(CH3)2) are linked at the level of the head groups by a hydrocarbon spacer (CsH2s). Here we report the microstructures formed by these dimeric surfactants with m = 12 and s = 2,3 or 4 in aqueous solution, by rapidly cooling the micellar solutions and investigating the vitrified structures with transmission electron microscopy. The surfactants with a short spacer (s = 2,3) form long, thread-like and entangled micelles even at low concentrations, whereas the corresponding monomeric ammonium surfactants can form only spherical micelles. The dimeric surfactants with s = 4 form spheroidal micelles. Thus short spacers (which impose reduced head-group separation) appear to promote lower spontaneous curvature in the assemblies. This approach may afford a new way to control amphiphile self-aggregation.
492 citations