Novel Discrete Micellar Cubic Phase From a Mixture of GMO/Ethanol/Water*

Rivka Efrat; Abraham Aserin; Dganit Danino; Ellen J. Wachtel; Nissim Garti

doi:10.1071/CH05171

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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Novel Discrete Micellar Cubic Phase From a Mixture of GMO/Ethanol/Water*

Rivka Efrat ^A , Abraham Aserin ^A , Dganit Danino ^B , Ellen J. Wachtel ^C and Nissim Garti ^A ^D

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.

^B Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.

^C Faculty of Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel.

^D Corresponding author. Email: garti@vms.huji.ac.il

Australian Journal of Chemistry 58(11) 762-766 https://doi.org/10.1071/CH05171
Submitted: 21 July 2005 Accepted: 11 October 2005 Published: 9 December 2005

Abstract

During the reconstruction the ternary phase diagram of glycerol monooleate (GMO)/ethanol/water, we detected a novel structure not previously seen. The new phase, denoted Q_L (micellar cubic liquid), is located within the 49–54 wt.-% water/41–33 wt.-% GMO binary mixture line and at 10–13 wt.-% EtOH in a small island within the phase diagram close to the cubic liquid-crystalline phase region. The Q_L phase is transparent (not tinted), of a low viscosity (36.6 Pa s), non-birefringent, and stable at room temperature. Evidence from severe centrifugation, synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements, and rheological behavior revealed that the sample is a single phase. SAXS reflections suggest that two types of domain may coexist. The symmetry of the Q_L phase is Pm3n. A cubic micellar structure is the dominant mesostructure of this unique sample. Cryo-TEM images show highly ordered domains with cubic symmetry, of lattice parameter 103 ± 2 Å. A possible transformation pathway to the Q_L phase is a ‘rupture and refusion’ mechanism, as the phase seems to have discontinuous symmetry.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by the United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation grant number 2003260 (2005), and the Israel Science Foundation grant number 9059/03 (2003).

References

^* The results presented in this paper are part of the Ph.D. dissertation of R.E. in Applied Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Presented in part at the Australian Colloid and Interface Symposium (ACIS), February 2005, Sydney, Australia.

Novel Discrete Micellar Cubic Phase From a Mixture of GMO/Ethanol/Water*

Abstract

Acknowledgments

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