BENDING ENERGY AND RELATIVE STABILITY OF MICELLAR FORMS

Calculations of bending energy of two different micellar forms (prolate ellipsoid and spherocylinder) were performed using the Hyde's model in order to evaluate the relative stability of both kinds of micelles in a large range of micelle length. These calculations show that (i) prolate ellipsoids are more stable than spherocylinders at lower micelle lengths, and (ii) there is a ''transition'' point where both kinds of micelles have the same bending energies. These results are used in the interpretation of experimental results of X-rav scattering in concentrated micellar solutions near the isotropic-hexagonal phase transition.