Novel lipid system forming hollow microtubes at high yields and concentration

There is considerable interest in constructing supramolecular hollow tube architectures based on amphiphilic molecules. This can be achieved by using relatively expensive synthetic lipids. Herein, we report on the facile preparation of self-assembled microtubes from a novel low-cost lipid mixture that does not require a previous chemical synthesis step and consists of the ethanolamine salt of 12-hydroxy-stearic acid in water. Tubes of more than 10 mu m in length spontaneously form upon cooling from an isotropic solution. They exhibit inner and outer diameters of 400 and 600 nm, respectively, and their walls consist of concentric stacked bilayers of fatty acid salts, each separated by a layer of water.