Abstract:

A review. Reviewed are recent advances in the understanding of self-assembly principles in lipid-based lyotropic lipid crystals, from the original rationalization achieved using the crit. packing parameter up to recent, more sophisticated thermodn. approaches, such as the SCF theory, which can be efficiently used to minimize the total free energy of a lipid-water system and identify stable mesophases. Highlighted is the importance of reversible hydrogen bonding as one of the key parameters ruling the self-assembly in these systems and examine the implications this may have also in real applications. The current understanding on the dynamics of phase transitions are finally discussed and the status of the art on current atomistic approaches to investigate the relaxation dynamics in these systems is reviewed. [on SciFinder(R)]