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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Self-Assembly of Hybrid Lipid Membranes Doped with Hydrophobic Organic Molecules at the Water/Air Interface
Published on: May 1, 2020
PH-regulated molecular self-assemblies in a cationic-anionic surfactant system: from a "1-2" surfactant pair to a
Yiyang Lin1, Xue Han, Xinhao Cheng
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
With the aid of pH variation, direct transformation of a "1-1" cationic-anionic surfactant pair to a "1-2" cationic-anionic surfactant pair was attained in the system of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and n-decylphosphoric acid. Owing to the transformation of a "1-1" pair to a "1-2" pair, diverse microstructures and peculiar phase behavior in this cationic-anionic surfactant mixture was obtained at different pH. It is proposed that pH can be manipulated for effectively tailoring the self-assembled organization in this cationic-anionic surfactant system, including spherical micelle, wormlike micelle, vesicle, and lamellar structure. In contrast to the conventional "1-1" surfactant pair, the "1-2" cationic-anionic surfactant pair exhibits unexpectedly weak aggregating ability. It is suggested that the hydrated volume of surfactant headgroup should be taken into consideration to better elucidate the self-assembly behavior of these "1-2" cationic-anionic surfactant mixtures.
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