Quantum nature of ionic surfactant micelles – alternative view on micellization process

Abstract We developed an alternative model of ionic surfactant micellization, in which self-assembly processes have been analyzed qualitatively from point of view different from the classical one using quantum mechanics principles, symmetry considerations, together with theory of self-organization in nonequilibrium systems, accounting the probabilistic nature of processes at nanoscale and their potential quantum coherence. As a result, we declare that micelle is organized as layered fullerene-like structure with a cavity in micelle center, having solid-like properties in radial direction and liquid-like in perpendicular ones and permitting water penetration between head and upper methylene groups of surfactant ions. It was indicated that there is the exchange interaction inside micelle, which leads to socialization of electrons and their transition to the state of quantum coherence. It has been found that indispensable condition for existence of spherical micelles is synchronous radial oscillations of atoms ("breathing" of micellar particle) generating coherent elastic waves and oscillations of coherent electrons, which can be a source of electromagnetic waves with frequencies close to thermal vibration frequencies of atoms. It was shown that long-range correlations connected with radiation and leading to permanently ongoing surfactant self-assembly and disintegration makes micellar solution kinetically nonequilibrium at nanoscale and thermodynamically stable at macroscale.