Spontaneous Curvature-Induced Rayleigh-like Instability in Swollen Cylindrical Micelles

We study a Rayleigh-like instability of an oil in water cylindrical “droplet” in the presence of excess surfactant. The surfactant monolayer is modeled by an interfacial bending energy with a nonvanishing spontaneous curvature C 0. We find that, even when surfactant reduces the interfacial tension t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Langmuir 1996-10, Vol.12 (21), p.5022-5027
Main Author: Granek, R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemistry
Colloidal state and disperse state
Exact sciences and technology
General and physical chemistry
Micelles. Thin films
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We study a Rayleigh-like instability of an oil in water cylindrical “droplet” in the presence of excess surfactant. The surfactant monolayer is modeled by an interfacial bending energy with a nonvanishing spontaneous curvature C 0. We find that, even when surfactant reduces the interfacial tension to a vanishingly small value, the bending energy with spontaneous curvature can destabilize the cylinder if its radius R is greater than C 0 -1. The cylinder deforms into “beads” which can eventually break up into spherical droplets whose radius we predict. Unlike in the classical Rayleigh case, we find that the total interfacial area is usually increasing. Using our theory, we discuss the kinetics of the transition from a microemulsion phase of swollen cylindrical micelles to a droplet phase, following a sudden increase in the spontaneous curvature parameter.
ISSN:0743-7463
1520-5827
DOI:10.1021/la9603838