Liquid crystal glycolipids - Carbohydrate Chemistry: Chemical and Biological Approaches - page 315

Fig. 3 The condensed mesophases formed by the amphitropic liquid crystal octyl
b - D -glucopyranoside. The smectic A* phase exists from 67 to 106 1 C, whereas the lyo-
tropic phases exist at room temperature and as a function of solvation with water.
Fig. 4 Structure of a micelle showing the dimensions of the constituent molecules.
when it transforms to the liquid. Thus, octyl b- D -glucopyranoside shows a
varied and rich polymorphism on heating in its neat form. When water is
added it first forms a lamellar phase, as the head groups swell on the
addition of more water a bicontinuous cubic phase is formed followed by
a hexagonal phase and micellar cubic phase as shown in Fig. 3.
It can be seen from structural investigations 3,5-7 that thermotropic
phases of nanosegregating systems are equally subject to the effects of
curvature as lyotropic phases, and indeed the thermotropic phases mir-
ror those of the lyotropic phases in this regard.
A very simple way to determine the effect of packing parameters on
mesophase formation can be achieved by estimating its effect on the
formation of micelles. Consider the structure of a perfectly spherical
micelle made up of conical-shaped molecules as shown in Fig. 4,