Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mphil-in-micro-and-nanotechnology-enterprise-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/paper-2/section-b/23/ii/solution

For ideal spherical micelles, and , giving . For a long cylindrical micelle, , so cylinders can accommodate larger packing parameters while keeping : roughly favours cylinders. Relatively small head area or greater tail volume reduces positive curvature.
For a planar bilayer leaflet of hydrophobic thickness , , with . Thus favours bilayer/vesicle structures, with nearly planar bilayers toward . The two leaflets put hydrophobic tails together and hydrophilic heads toward water. For , inverse structures become possible. These bounds are approximate packing guides; chain stretching, head interactions and aggregate free energy determine actual phase boundaries.

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