Characterization of Surfactant Assemblies by Microscopy

Abstract

The characterization of supramolecular assemblies is carried out on the thermotropic, hydrodynamic, spectroscopic, electromagnetic, scattering, and microscopic methods. Among them, the microscopic observation informs directly the size and shape of assemblies, different from other methods. In this article, the techniques of the optical, electron, scanning probe microscopes are briefly explained, and the researchs of surfactant assemblies by the microscope are reported. The formation of micelles and reverse micelles were verified by the electron microscope (TEM). Liquid crystals displayed the characteristic polarized optical microscopic textures and TEM images. The existence of bilayers in vesicles and reverse vesicles were confirmed by the freeze-fracture TEM observation. The flocculation, fusion, and destroy of vesicles and emulsions were chased by the differential interference contrast microscope. The structures of molecular assemblies in the multicomponent systems of surfactant/water/oil (organic solvent) were determined. The various types of supramolecular fibers were observed by the cryo TEM. Dimentional ordered structures such as Langmuir-Blodgett films were compared between the homogeneous and heterogeneous systems by the atomic force microscope.