JCE Online Journal of Chemical Education
 | Subscriptions  | Software Orders  | Support  | Contributors  | Advertisers  | 

JCE Print
   Current Issue
 Previous Issues
 Supplements
 Search JCE Index

JCE Digital Library
   DigiDemos
 QBank
 SymMath
 WebWare

JCE Software
   Latest Releases
 Software & Video
 Downloads
 Support

Only@JCE Online
   JCE Online Store
 JCE HS CLIC
 JCE Discussion Forums
   Biographical Snapshots
 ChemEd Resource Shelf
 Featured Molecules
 Hal's Picks
 Project Chemlab
 Reviewed WWW Sites
 "Web-Ed" Articles

About JCE
   Features
 Publications
 Operations
 Outreach
 Contact Us


  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2001  > March  >
Research: Science and Education
Are Micelles and Vesicles Chemical Equilibrium Systems?
Pier Luigi Luisi
Institut für Polymere, ETH Zentrum, Universitätstrasse 6, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Cover
March 2001
Vol. 78 No. 3
p. 380
Abstract
This paper focuses on whether and to what extent surfactant aggregates--in particular, vesicles--are chemical equilibrium systems. This is generally not clearly addressed in textbooks and often is approached in a confused manner in the specialized literature. I argue that, while micelles are fairly straightforward chemical equilibrium systems, the case of vesicles is more nebulous and plagued by the intrinsic ambiguity of terms such as "spontaneous", "metastable", and "non-equilibrium systems". I attempt to clarify and redefine these terms. Some of the most important criteria that discriminate between an equilibrium system and a non-equilibrium system are then outlined. Application of these criteria to vesicles does not always give unambiguous results, the main reason being that vesicles intrinsically cannot be assigned clearly to one category or the other. Several problems of vesicular systems can be qualitatively interpreted through the interplay of kinetic and thermodynamic factors.
More Information
*  Citation
 Luisi, Pier Luigi. J. Chem. Educ. 2001 78 380.
*  Keywords
 Colloids; Equilibrium; Lipids; Micelles; Surface Science
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 February 6, 2001
August 31, 2005
<< Previous Article Table of Contents Next Article >>
  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2001 > March > Page 380


Subscriptions
 Subscription Info
 Order Forms

JCE HS CLIC

Our Secondary School editors work hard to distill all the JCE materials to produce a fraction of particular interest to high school teachers. We call it CLIC.
 JCE HS CLIC

Contributions Welcome
JCE welcomes your submission
 Contributors' Corner

Advertisers
In recent years we have worked hard to better match our advertisers with our readers. When shopping for chemistry education materials, visit our advertisers' WWW sites first.
 Recent Advertisers

Be An Ambassador
Take JCE along on your outreach missions. Copies of the Journal, guest access to JCE Online, our publications catalog, and more are available for your participants.
 Outreach with JCE

Comments to
jceonline@chem.wisc.edu		 Copyright © Division of Chemical Education, Inc., American Chemical Society.
All rights reserved.