Stability of bicontinuous cubic phases in ternary amphiphilic systems withspontaneous curvature

We study the phase behavior of ternary amphiphilic systems in the framework of a curvature model with nonvanishing spontaneous curvature. The amphiphi lic monolayers can arrange in different ways to form micellar, hexagonal, l amellar, and various bicontinuous cubic phases. For the latter case we cons ider both single structures (one monolayer) and double structures (two mono layers). Their interfaces are modeled by the triply periodic surfaces of co nstant mean curvature of the families G, D, P, C(P), I-WP, and F-RD. The st ability of the different bicontinuous cubic phases can be explained by the way in which their universal geometrical properties conspire with the conce ntration constraints. For vanishing saddle-splay modulus <(kappa)over bar>, almost every phase considered has some region of stability in the Gibbs tr iangle. Although bicontinuous cubic phases are suppressed by sufficiently n egative values of the saddle-splay modulus <(kappa)over bar>, we find that they can exist for considerably lower values than obtained previously. The most stable bicontinuous cubic phases with decreasing <(kappa)over bar>< 0 are the single and double gyroid structures since they combine favorable to pological properties with extreme volume fractions. (C) 2000 American Insti tute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)70306-0].