Inverse Micellar Cubic Phases of Lipids

Abstract

We describe the observation of a novel inverse face-centred cubic phase, of space group Fd3m, in two different systems of hydrated binary lipid mixtures. This cubic phase occurs between the inverse hexagonal (HII) phase and the inverse micellar solution (L2) with increasing concentration of the lipid component with the less strongly hydrophilic headgroup, and appears to be the first example of a lyotropic cubic phase composed entirely of closed inverse micellar aggregates.KeywordsSodium OleateNormal TopologyLipid SystemInverse MicellePeriodic Minimal SurfaceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.