The chain conformations in membranes and micelles

Theory and experiment have recently converged to permit a coherent description of the molecular organization of the hydrocarbon tails within surfactant micelles, monolayers, bilayers and other amphiphilic aggregates. The theory is reviewed here, presented in simple form, and is compared to experiments. It is concluded that molecular organization arises from the interfacial localization of amphiphilic chain molecules whose equilibrium conformations are as random as permitted by packing and intramolecular constraints.