Spontaneous vesicle formation and transforma- tion of vesicle to tubular microstructure have been observed in aqueous mixtures of tri-(n-dodecyl-dimethyl-hydroxy- propylammonium chloride) phosphate (PTA) and sodium dedecyl sulfate (SDS), which is supported by negative-stain- ing transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scan electron microscopy (SEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Spherical vesicles aggregate to tubular microstructures with their diameters and lengths respectively of about 100 and 7000 nm in the freshly prepared sample at the molar ratio of PTA/SDS=3/7 and a total surfactant concentration of 0.01 mol/L. The diameter, the length and the quantity of tubular structures all increase with the increase of the total concen- tration of surfactant and the sample aging.
The iterative method in functional analysis is applied to looking for a solution of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation in order to describe the problems of the distribution of the potentials in the electric double layer (EDL) inside the water pool for a cylindrical inverse micelle. Potentials as a function of the position of a particular point in EDL are computed, which display a quantitative agreement with those from earlier calculation of Debye and Hückel in the case of low potentials. But it is also shown that in the higher-potential range the iterative calculations can give more accurate re- sults. These results indicate the utility of this functional analysis technique in the description of the properties of EDL for a cylindrical inverse micelle.
WANG Zhengwu1,2, GUO Baomin2, ZHANG Gexin1 & YU Huixin1 1. Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology of Ministry of Education, Southern Yangtze University, Wuxi 214036, China
