Spherical harmonics analysis of surface density fluctuations of spherical ionic SDS and nonionic C₁₂E₈ micelles: A...

The surface structure and its fluctuation of spherical micelles were investigated using a series of density correlation functions newly defined by spherical harmonics and Legendre polynomials based on the molecular dynamics calculations. To investigate the influence of head-group charges on the micelle surface structure, ionic sodium dodecyl sulfate and nonionic octaethyleneglycol monododecylether (C₁₂E₈) micelles were investigated as model systems. Large-scale density fluctuations were observed for both micelles in the calculated surface static structure factor. The area compressibility of the micelle surface evaluated by the surface static structure factor was tens-of-times larger than a typical value of a lipid membrane surface. The structural relaxation time, which was evaluated from the surface intermediate scattering function, indicates that the relaxation mechanism of the long-range surface structure can be well described by the hydrostatic approximation. The density fluctuation on the two-dimensional micelle surface has similar characteristics to that of three-dimensional fluids near the critical point.