PHASE-TRANSITIONS AND GLASS-LIKE BEHAVIOR OF AMPHIPHILE ASSEMBLIES

A generalized theory of temperature-induced phase transitions in amphiphile assemblies is developed. An analysis of both the thermodynamic and the kinetic features of the solidification process at arbitrary cooling rates has been provided for lipid vesicles. In order to describe the experimentally observed kinetics of vesicle volumes, a set of self-consistent equations has been constructed. The dependence of the effective transition temperature on the cooling rate and the Laplace pressure is postulated. Equations for the temperature dependence of the order parameter and vesicle volume changes have been solved by a numerical technique for dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine and dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine lipids. By analogy with the bulk glass transition in glass-forming materials, the surface membrane glass-like transition is found.