Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2007 Section A A1 b Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
For a spherical micelle of sodium dodecyl sulfate with molecules and a sharp tail-filled core of radius , volume and head-group area give and . Dividing gives the spherical micelle geometryThere is a consistency limit: exceeds the supplied maximum tail length . Equivalently the amphiphile packing parameter is , outside the strict spherical-core bound. Thus the requested spherical assumption gives these estimates, but the three molecular dimensions cannot all be exact within that ideal sharp-core geometry. Effective head area, core structure or aggregate shape must adjust; silently replacing by would no longer satisfy both packing equations.