Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 1
Physics of Self-Assembly of
Lyotropic Liquid Crystals
RAFFAELE MEZZENGA
ETH Zurich, Food & Soft Materials Science, Institute of Food, Nutrition & Health,
Zürich, Switzerland
Abstract
We review recent advances in the understanding of self-assembly principles in lipid-
based lyotropic lipid crystals, from the original rationalization achieved using the criti-
cal packing parameter up to recent, more sophisticated thermodynamics approaches,
such as the self-consistent fi eld theory, which can be effi ciently used to minimize the
total free energy of a lipid-water system and identify stable mesophases. We highlight
the importance of reversible hydrogen bonding as one of the key parameters ruling
the self-assembly in these systems and examine the implications this may have also in
real applications. We fi nally discuss the current understanding on the dynamics of phase
transitions and review the status of the art on current atomistic approaches to investi-
gate the relaxation dynamics in these systems.
1.1
Introduction
2
1.2
Critical Packing Parameter
3
1.3
Analogies and Differences between Lipids and Block Copolymers
5
1.3.1
Self - Consistent Field Theory
8
1.3.2
The SCFT of Water and Hydrogen - Bonded Lipids
9
1.3.3
Validation of SCFT Predictions
11
1.4
Dynamics of Order - Order Transitions and Atomistic Simulations
13
1.5
Outlook and Conclusions
17
References
17
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