Characterization of Multilamellar Vesicles for Cleansing Applications

Surfactant molecules have the ability to self-assemble at concentrations greater than a critic micellar concentration (CMC) into several types of supra molecular aggregates. These aggregates include spheres (micellar phase), cylinders (hexagonal phase) or bilayers (lamellar phases) depending on the amount and types of surfactants that are used. Lamellar phases are not rigid, sheetlike bilayers but rather are elastic and can undulate. Upon shearing, lamellar phases can rearrange into soft colloidal objects of spherical shape consisting of a concentric stack of surfactant bilayers. These objects are called multilamellar vesicles (MLV).¹