Phase transition of precipitation cream with densely packed multilamellar vesicles by the replacement of solvent

The swelling of lamellar phase can be induced by the replacement of solvent in a tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTABr) and sodium laurate (SL) aqueous mixed solution that contains cream floating precipitates on the upper phase and L1-phase (micelles) at the lower phase. The cream floating precipitates contain densely packed multilamellar vesicles, which were determined by freeze-fracture transmission electron microscopy (FF-TEM) images. Phase transition, from cream floating precipitates to swelling birefringent vesicle phase, to two-phase Lalpha/L1, and finally to micelle phase, can be induced by adding glycerin as solvent in the aqueous solution. At first, densely packed multilamellar vesicles of cream floating precipitates on the upper phase swelled throughout the whole phase with increasing content of glycerin. The replacement of solvent lowers the turbidity of the dispersion and swells the interlamellar distance between the bilayers, which is explained by matching of refractive index of the solvent to the refractive index of the bilayers of the surfactant mixtures. With an increasing amount of glycerin, the swelling Lalpha phase turned to two-phase Lalpha/L1, and finally to L1 phase (micelles). This phase transition can also be explained because of the increasing critical micelle concentration of the cationic and anionic (catanionic) surfactant mixture (TTABr and SL) at high glycerin concentration. The phase transition induced by addition of sorbitol can also be studied and compared to the case of adding glycerin. These results may direct toward acquiring an understanding of the phase transition mechanism of catanionic surfactants induced by solvents.