Confinement effects on water structure in membrane lyotropic phases

Régis Guégan (1)

1 ISTO - Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans

The change of the water structure in aqueous solutions of the tri-ethyleneglycol mono n-decyl ether (C10E3) was studied by micro Raman scattering. The results obtained on the O-H stretching band show that the behavior of the hydrogen bonding (H-bonds) water network can be used as a probe to follow the lamellar (Lα) to sponge (L3) phase transition. In the lamellar phase, the stack of the surfactant molecules aggregated into a two-dimensional structure (membrane) acts as a soft confinement system for the H-bond water network of which the regular tetrahedral structure is perturbed. The change of the planar organization of the membranes to a highly disordered and infinite array of bilayers in the sponge phase amplifies the surface of contact between amphiphilic surfactant and water molecules which drives a strong disruption of the regular tetrahedral H-bonding water network

Keywords: Non-ionic surfactant; Lamellar; Sponge phase; Water structure; Raman scattering

Domains: Earth Sciences

Régis Guégan. Confinement effects on water structure in membrane lyotropic phases. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2011, 358 (2), pp.485-490. ⟨10.1016/j.jcis.2011.02.035⟩. ⟨insu-00585270⟩