During the last few years, there has been an extraordinary increase in publications describing the manifold applications of monoolein, one of the most important lipids in the fields of drug delivery, emulsion stabilization and protein crystallization. In this perspective we present a comprehensive review of the phase behavior of this 'magic lipid'. An account of various mesophases formed in the presence of water and a collection of formulae for the calculation of their nano-structural parameters are provided. Effects of chemical and biological molecules including lipids, detergents, salts, sugars, proteins and DNA on the classical behavior are also discussed. Physicochemical triggers such as, temperature, pressure and shearing modulate the phase behavior of monoolein self assemblies that are covered in subsequent sections. Finally the growing applications of monoolein in various fields are also reported.

We present herein a study on the adsorption of anionic (SDS), cationic (CTAB), and nonionic (C(12)E(5)) surfactants onto anionic silica nanoparticles. The effects of this adsorption are studied by means of the static structure factor, S(q), and the collective diffusion coefficient, D(c), obtained from small-angle X-ray scattering and dynamic light scattering measurements, respectively. The effective charge on the particles was determined also from classical electrophoresis and electroacoustic sonic-amplitude measurements. The surface tension of the sample was also investigated. Of particular note is the adsorption of SDS onto the silica nanoparticles, which leads to supercharging of the interface. This has interesting repercussions for structures obtained by the layer-by-layer (LbL) technique, because emulsions stabilized with supercharged and hydrophobized silica are perfect candidates for use in a multilayer system.

This paper outlines a complete and self-consistent cell model theory of the electrokinetics of dense spherical colloidal suspensions for general electrolyte composition, frequency of applied field, zeta potential, and particle size. The standard electrokinetic equations, first introduced for any given particle configuration, are made tractable to computation by averaging over particle configurations. The focus of this paper is on the systematic development of suitable boundary conditions at the outer cell boundary obtained from global constraints on the suspension. The approach is discussed in relation to previously published boundary conditions that have often been introduced in an ad hoc manner. Results of a robust numerical calculation of high-frequency colloidal transport properties, such as dynamic mobility, using the present model are presented and compared with some existing dense suspension models.

In this work, we show how the cell model traditionally used for the evaluation of the electrokinetic properties of concentrated suspensions can be modified to include the case of soft particles, that is, particles consisting of a rigid core and a polyelectrolyte membrane. The Navier-Stokes and Poisson's equations have been modified to account for the presence of extra friction and a volume-distributed charge in the membrane. In addition to the boundary conditions on the particle and the cell boundary, it is necessary to define conditions on the polymer-electrolyte solution interface. The frequency dependence of the dynamic mobility and electric permittivity of suspensions of soft particles with arbitrary solids concentration is computed. It is shown that the dynamic mobility of these systems is larger than that corresponding to hard particles with the same charge. For the permittivity, the same trends are observed: the R-relaxation amplitude increases upon coating. It is found that friction plays an important role in determining the mobility, while the permittivity is more affected by the concentration of solids. The model also predicts that the charges on the core and in the membrane are very important parameters, although their effects differ on the mobility and the permittivity. While the former depends mainly on the membrane charge, the latter is responsive to both charges at comparable extents.

Capacitive energy extraction based on double layer expansion (CDLE) is the name of a new method devised for extracting energy from the exchange of fresh and salty water in porous electrodes. It is based on the change of the capacitance of electrical double layers (EDLs) at the electrode/solution interface when the concentration of the bulk electrolyte solution is modified. The use of porous electrodes provides huge amounts of surface area, but given the typically small pore size, the curvature of the interface and EDL overlap should affect the final result. This is the first aspect dealt with in this contribution: we envisage the electrode as a swarm of spherical particles, and from the knowledge of their EDL structure, we evaluate the stored charge, the differential capacitance and the extracted energy per CDLE cycle. In all cases, different pore radii and particle sizes and possible EDL overlap are taken into account. The second aspect is the consideration of finite ion size instead of the usual point-like ion model: given the size of the pores and the relatively high potentials that can be applied to the electrode, excluded volume effects can have a significant role. We find an extremely strong effect: the double layer capacitance is maximum for a certain value of the surface potential. This is a consequence of the limited ionic concentration at the particle-solution interface imposed by the finite size of ions, and leads to the presence of two potential ranges: for low electric potentials the capacitance increases with the ionic strength, while for large potentials we find the opposite trend. The consequences of these facts on the possibility of net energy extraction from porous electrodes, upon changing the solution in contact with them, are evaluated.

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The "capacitive mixing" (CAPMIX) is one of the techniques aimed at the extraction of energy from the salinity difference between sea and rivers. It is based on the rise of the voltage between two electrodes, taking place when the salt concentration of the solution in which they are dipped is changed. We study the rise of the potential of activated carbon electrodes in NaCl solutions, as a function of their charging state. We evaluate the effect of the modification of the materials obtained by adsorption of charged molecules. We observe a displacement of the potential at which the potential rise vanishes, as predicted by the electric double layer theories. Moreover, we observe a saturation of the potential rise at high charging states, to a value that is nearly independent of the analyzed material. This saturation represents the most relevant element that determines the performances of the CAPMIX cell under study; we attribute it to a kinetic effect.

The capacitive mixing procedure for energy extraction based on Double Layer Expansion (CDLE) belongs to the group of so-called CAPMIX techniques, which aim at obtaining energy from the salinity difference between fresh and sea waters. Specifically, the CDLE technique takes advantage of the voltage rise that occurs when sea water is exchanged for river water in a pair of porous electrodes which jointly behave as an electrical double layer supercapacitor. In this article, we deal with some experimental aspects that appear essential for optimizing the extracted energy, and have not yet been analyzed with sufficient detail. This investigation will help in evaluating those parameters which need to be fixed in a future CDLE device. These include the charging potential, the durations of the different cycle steps, the load resistance used, and the porosity and hydrophilicity of the carbon.