SHORT-RANGE MOLECULAR INTERACTIONS AND STABILITY OF AMPHIPHILE BILAYER

Abstract

A new approach is proposed for the study of short-range molecular interactions between first neighboring molecules in amphiphile bilayers by means of experimentally determined dependencies of the bilayer mean lifetime on the surfactant concentration and of the critical concentration for bilayer formation on the temperature. Short-range molecular interactions are demonstrated by the parameters binding energy Q of an amphiphile molecule in the bilayer and specific line energy γ of the nucleus hole. These parameters are calculated from the experimental dependencies by using the hole-nucleation theory [D. Kashchiev and D. Exerowa, J. Colloid Interface Sci., 77, 501 (1980)] describing the stability of amphiphile bilayers. It is shown the decisive role of the short-range molecular interactions for the bilayer stability and the occurrence of first-order phase transition in phospholipid foam bilayers. The values of Q and γ are calculated for various amphiphile bilayers: anionic and nonionic surfactants, phospholipids and their natural mixtures.