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Solvent-induced micelle formation in a hydrophobic interaction model.

  • Moelbert S Institut de Thèorie des Phènomènes Physiques, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • Normand B
  • De Los Rios P
  • 2004-07-13
Published in:
  • Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics. - 2004
Colloids
Computer Simulation
Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions
Macromolecular Substances
Micelles
Models, Chemical
Models, Molecular
Molecular Conformation
Solutions
Solvents
Water
English We investigate the aggregation of amphiphilic molecules by adapting the two-state Muller-Lee-Graziano model for water, in which a solvent-induced hydrophobic interaction is included implicitly. We study the formation of various types of micelle as a function of the distribution of hydrophobic regions at the molecular surface. Successive substitution of nonpolar surfaces by polar ones demonstrates the influence of hydrophobicity on the upper and lower critical solution temperatures. Aggregates of lipid molecules, described by a refinement of the model in which a hydrophobic tail of variable length interacts with different numbers of water molecules, are stabilized as the length of the tail increases. We demonstrate that the essential features of micelle formation are primarily solvent-induced, and are explained within a model which focuses only on the alteration of water structure in the vicinity of the hydrophobic surface regions of amphiphiles in solution.
Language
  • English
Open access status
green
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https://sonar.ch/global/documents/77984
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