Amphiphilic layers play essential roles in the behaviour of a great variety of disperse systems such as micelles, microemulsions and vesicles. They can also exist as isolated mono- or bilayers, or constitute extended liquid crystalline structures. Although the properties of these different systems may at first sight seem unrelated, theoretical interpretations of them depend on several common concepts. This was the reason for bringing together scientists working in this area for the International Winter School on the Physics of Amphiphilic Layers, which was held at Les Houches, 10-18 February, 1987. The topics treated in the proceedings volume are mono- and bilayers, interactive forces between layers (with special emphasis on steric forces), ordered structures (in particular swollen lamellar phases and defects), vesicles, micelles (including polymer-like systems), microemulsions (especially random bicontinuous structures) and porous media. The importance of thermal fluctuations in the amphiphilic layers is stressed. Recent results are presented and literature references allow readers not familiar with the subject to find any background information they require.

Inhalt

I Mono- and Bilayers.- Molecular Theory for Amphiphile Packing and Elastic Properties of Monolayers and Bilayers.- Chain Packing and the Compressional Elasticity of Surfactant Films.- Dynamics of Phase Transitions in Langmuir Monolayers of Polar Molecules.- Investigation of Phase Transitions in Fatty Acid Monolayers by Fluorescence Microscopy.- Polymorphism of Monolayers of Monomeric and Macromolecular Lipids: On the Defect Structure of Crystalline Phases and the Possibility of Hexatic Order Formation.- Surface-Density Transitions, Surface Elasticity and Rigidity, and Rupture Strength of Lipid Bilayer Membranes.- Equilibrium Configurations of Fluid Membranes.- Dynamics of Drying and Film-Thinning.- II Surface Thermal Fluctuations.- Curvature and Fluctuations of Amphiphilic Membranes.- Fluctuations and Interactions Between Membranes.- Tangential Flows in Fluid Membranes and Their Effect on the Softening of Curvature Rigidity with Scale.- Unbinding of Membranes.- Elasticity of Crystalline and Hexatic Membranes.- Fluctuations on Crystal Surfaces.- Surface Tension and Rigidity: Role of the Fluctuations and Optical Measurements.- III Ordered Phases.- Geometrical Basis of Cubic Structures.- Periodic Surfaces of Prescribed Mean Curvature.- The Cubic Phases of Liquid-Containing Systems: Physical Structure and Biological Implications.- Interactions in Lyotropic Lamellar Phases: A High Resolution X-Ray Study.- Stability of Brine Swollen Lamellar Phases.- Phase Diagram of Lamellar Phases: Rigidity and Curvature.- Edge Dislocations and Elasticity in Swollen Lamellar Phases.- Lamellar Lyotropic Phases: Rheology, Defects.- On the Coexistence of Two Lamellar Phases.- IV Vesicles.- Long Range Interactions Between Lipid Bilayers in Salt Solutions and Solutions of Non-Adsorbant Polymers: Comparison of Mean-Field Theory with Direct Measurements.- Niosomes: A Case in the Design of Lipid Vesicles.- Direct Visualization of Amphiphilic Phases by Video Enhanced Microscopy and Cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy.- Spontaneous Formation of Vesicular Structures from a Swollen Lamellar Phase by Dilution and Control of Surface Charge Density.- V Micelles.- Scattering of Concentrated Dispersions of Colloidal Particles: Microemulsion Droplets, Polydisperse Hard Spheres and Charged Hard Spheres.- Self-diffusion of Globules.- Dynamics of Charged Systems.- Counterion Complexation. Ion Specificity in the Diffuse Double Layer of Surfactant and Classical Colloids.- Light Scattering Experiments on Interacting Micelles.- Nonionic Micelles.- SANS Study of Structure, Growth, and Polydispersity of Short-Chain Lecithin Micellar Systems. A Ladder Model Analysis.- Theory of Thermodynamic Properties and Phase Separation of Micellar Solutions with Upper and Lower Consolute Points.- Electric Birefringence of Nonionic Micellar Solutions Near the Cloud Point.- Aspects of the Statistical Thermodynamics of Amphiphilic Solutions.- Rheological Properties of Semi-Dilute Micellar Systems.- Shear Induced Micellar Structures.- Dynamics of Intermicellar Exchanges.- VI Microemulsions.- A Statistical Mechanical Model for Microemulsions.- Middle-Phase Microemulsions and Random Surfaces.- Intimations of Bicontinuity in Microemulsion Theory.- Microemulsions and Their Precursors.- Three-Component Microemulsion Structure: Curvature and Geometric Constraints.- Transition of Rodlike to Globular Micelles by the Solubilization of Additives.- A Study of Dynamics of Microemulsion Droplets by Neutron Spin Echo Spectroscopy.- Images of Bicontinuous Microemulsions by Freeze Fracture Electron Microscopy.- Molecular Self-Diffusion and Microemulsion Bicontinuity.- Scattering Probes of Microemulsion Structure.- Small-Angle Scattering on Microemulsion Systems. Evidence for an Ordered Bicontinuous Structure.- Relation Between Elasticity of Surfactant Layers and Characteristic Sizes in Microemulsions.- Phase Behavior of Quinary Systems: The X Surface.- VII Porous Media.- Fractal Flow Patterns in Porous Media.- Index of Contributors.