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New controlled release systems produced by self-assembly of biopolymers and colloidal particles at fluid-fluid interfaces
The self-assembly behavior of a commercial mixture of polyglycerol fatty acid esters (PGE) and water is investigated as a function of temperature and surfactant content. The phase diagram of this pseudo-binary mixture was characterized 14 using a combination of cross-polarized light and freeze-fracture electron microscopy (cryo-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Our experiments show that the morphology of the supramolecular aggregates is lamellar and present in the form of a continuous or dispersed phase (multilamellar vesicles) depending on the water content of the system. Under the effect of temperature, the short and long-range order of the bimolecular layers successively changes from a biphasic surfactant dispersion to a lamellar liquid-crystalline (L,.) and a stable lamellar gel phase (L-beta) upon cooling;; this transition is found to be irreversible. Formation of the lamellar aggregates can be related to the average molecular Structure and shape factor of PGE. The stability of the resulting gel phase (L) appears to be due to the presence of small amounts of unreacted ionic co-surfactant, namely, fatty acid soaps, in this per se nonionic commercial mixture. [hide]
Scientific Board
Andreas Bausch
TU Munich, Germany ►
Peter Fischer
ETH Zurich, Switzerland ►
Anne-Marie Hermansson
SIK, Sweden ►
Martin Kroger
ETH Zurich, Germany/Switzerland ►
Erik van der Linden
Wageningen UR, The Netherlands ►
Niklas Loren
SIK, Sweden ►
Leonard Sagis
Wageningen UR, The Netherlands ►
Erich Windhab
ETH Zurich, Switzerland ►
Klaas-Jan Zuidam
Unilever, The Netherlands ►
Scientific Stuff
Manuela Duxenneuner
ETH Zurich, Switzerland ►
Sophia Fransson
SIK, Sweden ►
Nam-Phuong Humblet-Hua
Wageningen UR, The Netherlands ►
Joeska Husny
ETH Zurich, Australia/Switzerland ►
Orit Peleg
ETH Zurich, Israel/Switzerland ►
Cyrille Vezy
TU Munich, Germany ►
Varvara Mitropoulos
ETH Zurich, Switzerland ►
Associated Scientists
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SY Tee, AR Bausch, PA Janmey,
The mechanical cell
CURRENT BIOLOGY 19 (2009) R745 ►Selected conferences (co-)organized by project members
8th World Congress on Computational Mechanics WCCM8 2008
30 June - 5 July 2007, Venice, Italy ►13 May 2025
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