Self-Assembly in Lipidic Particles - Self-Assembled Supramolecular Architectures: Lyotropic Liquid Crystals - page 146

Oil solubilization:

→ loading lipid phases with hydrophobic component

→ increasing negative curvature

bicontinuous cub ic (V 2 ) → reverse hexagonal (H 2 ) → reverse microemulsion (L 2 )

Bulk systems:

Dispersed systems:

cubosomes hexosomes → emulsified microemulsion

Tuning back:

addition of surfactant

decreasing negative curvature

cubosomes hexosomes emulsified microemulsion

Figure 5.14 Tuning back the curvature of oil-loaded self-assembled nanostructures.

1

β = 100

β = 75

β = 25

= 0

β

0 1 2 3 4

q [nm -1 ]

Figure 5.15 Effect of DGMO content on the SAXS curves of TC-loaded aqueous
dispersions at 25°C for values ranging from 0 to 100. The intensities

have been shifted by a constant arbitrary factor for the sake of visibility. [Reprinted
from Yaghmur et al. (2006b) .]

α = 6, and with β

DGMO, at α = 6, promoted a reversed transition (from hexosomes at β = 0

and 25 back to cubosomes at 50 and 100), thus rendering the spontaneous

curvature of the oil-loaded interior less negative. However, an amount of
DGMO (

β =

50) higher than that of oil was needed to overcome the effect of
TC, which indicates that TC had a larger impact on the internal structure than
DGMO. At a higher content of solubilized TC [at

β =

α = 75 as presented in