Differential length effects in a binary mixture of single chain amphiphiles in planar monolayers. A three-dimensional...

The purpose of this work was to investigate the selective association into a binary lipid mixture having the acyl chain lengths of the two components as variables. A more adequate parameter that can describe the selectivity of the association processes into a binary lipid mixture is the mean association probability. In the present paper, we used a three-dimensional approach by evaluating the mean probabilities of association of single chain amphiphile molecules for a group of 36 binary mixtures. The possible correlations between the hydrophobic chain lengths and the association processes have been carried out by using the differential mean association probabilities. These results allowed us to uncover some significant rules that govern the selective association between the two components from a single chain binary mixture. We have found that in a binary mixture of single chain amphiphiles, the distance where the dispersion forces become effective during association processes is about 8.89 A.