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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Confinement effects on water structure in membrane lyotropic phases
1Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans, CNRS-Université d'Orléans, 1A Rue de la Férolerie, 45071 Orléans Cedex 2, France. regis.guegan@univ-orleans.fr
Abstract:
The change of the water structure in aqueous solutions of the tri-ethyleneglycol mono n-decyl ether (C(10)E(3)) 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 (L(α)) to sponge (L(3)) 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.
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