Large disk-shaped structures (discomes) in nonionic surfactant vesicle to micelle transitions

Addition of surfactants to vesicular dispersions can lead to solubulization of the vesicles and their subsequent translation into mixed micellar systems (Kim and Kim, 1991). We have found that large discoid structures exist under certain conditions of the phase diagram of nonionic surfactant vesicles prepared from a hexadecyl diglycerol ether (C 16 G 2 ), cholesterol, and dicetyl phosphate (DCP) in the molar ratio 69:29:2 by mechanical shaking and sonication followed by incubation with a soluble polyoxethylene cholesteryl ether, Solulan C24, at 74 o C