A hexanol-induced sphere-to-flexible cylinder transition in aqueous alkyl polyglucoside solutions

Sugar surfactants have recently attracted considerable interest. Here we re port a systematic light and neutron scattering investigation of aqueous sol utions of the alkyl polyglucoside C(8/10)G(1.5) The system exhibits a trans ition from globular to giant wormlike micelles upon the addition of hexanol . We can finely tune the extent of micellar growth and in particular reach conditions where solutions of relatively short cylinders exist, which drama tically grow into giant wormlike micelles upon the addition of small amount s of hexanol. While considerable progress has been made in the understandin g of interaction effects in solutions of spheres or large polymer-like obje cts, limited information exists for short flexible cylinders. An important reason for this is the lack of good model systems. Here we now demonstrate that; the APG system provides us with an ideal set of data for an analysis of micellar growth and interactions in solutions with cylindrical particles of moderate axial ratios. We apply theoretical expressions for the static structure factor derived from Monte Carlo computer simulations of semiflexi ble polymers with excluded volume interactions, which allow us to self-cons istently incorporate micellar interactions and growth in a quantitative ana lysis of the light and neutron scattering data.