Quasielastic Light-Scattering Study of Mixed Micelles

Abstract

The study of aggregation phenomena of amphiphilic molecules in aqueous solution is an increasingly interesting field of application of the static and dynamic light-scattering technique. Amphiphilic molecules are made with a non-polar hydrophobic “tail” (usually one or two hydrocarbon chains containing various numbers of methylene groups), which is joined to a polar hydrophilic head group. Such molecules are also called surfactants or detergents. Amphiphilic molecules present great technological importance because they are used in many industrial processes (detergency, tertiary oil recovery, polymerization reactions, lubrification, cosmetics, pharmaceutics, etc. ). They are also quite interesting in biology as basic constituents of living matter, like phospholipids in membranes. Finally amphiphilic molecules present important physical problems, the understanding of which is quite stimulating.