BENDING CONSTANTS OF SURFACTANT LAYERS

Bending elasticity is a crucial parameter for our understanding of the structures and phase sequences in surfactant systems. Theoretical mod els that stress in particular the interfacial aspect of such systems h elp us to understand and rationalize these systems of monolayers or bi layers. Considerable advances have been made, from both a theoretical and an experimental point of view, in relating the bending moduli to m olecular parameters of amphiphilic systems. Recent systematic experime ntal studies have allowed us to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the dependencies of the bending parameters on the molecular compositi on of the corresponding surfactant films.