Assembly of extended interfaces and micelles: charge frustrated models of amphiphilic mixtures

Abstract

This paper describes aspects of self-assembly in complex fluids in terms of the concept of charge frustration. This concept follows from the analogy between electrostatic energy and the entropic constraints of amphiphilic stoichiometry. It provides a minimalist molecular description of self-assembling systems. The concept is illustrated in this paper with two types of applications. The first concerns the theory of extended interfaces i.e. bilayers in water–surfactant mixtures. The second concerns the theory of micelles. The conditions under which these structures assemble in terms of molecular quantities such as the chain length of the surfactant molecules are predicted, and comparison with experiment is discussed.