Eur. Phys. J. B 12, 421-429 (1999)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510051024

Cubic phases of amphiphilic molecular aggregates

Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil

Corresponding author: ^a dmitriev@fsc.ufsc.br

Received: 25 February 1999
Revised: 29 June 1999
Published online: 15 December 1999

Abstract

Stability and geometry of the lyotropic periodic cubic mesophases are considered in the framework of a general symmetry based phenomenological approach. A limited number of cubic structural types is shown to be formed by amphiphilic molecular aggregates due to the specific nature of self-organizing units. The related thermodynamic models predict topology of phase diagrams and specific features of transitions between isotropic, lamellar, cubic bicontinuous and cubic micellar phases.