STABILITY AND SIZE CONTROL OF REVERSE VESICLES

The stability and size control of reverse vesicles have been investiga ted for a sucrose monoalkanoate/hexaethylene glycol hexadecyl ether/de cane/water system, The stability is highly dependent on the surfactant mixing ratio, amount of added water, and vesicle size. The size distr ibution of reverse vesicles produced by simple mixing is very large, b ut larger vesicles can be removed by means of the extrusion method and reasonably homogeneously size-distributed reverse vesicles can be obt ained. If a probe-type ultrasonicator is used, the reverse vesicles ob tained are homogeneous and of very small size (50-70 nm in diameter) a nd they are considered to be of the unilamellar type. (C) 1995 Academi c Press, Inc.