4. Newton's film noir: matrix for self-organization

4.1 Reproducible model systems

After determining the structure of Newton's film, it was interesting to find out whether the structure obtained for SDS, characterized by its strong organization, compactness, and absence of liquid water, was specific to this surfactant or whether it was more general. Nonionic surfactants appeared to us to be good candidates for forming other Newtonian films since, a priori, there is little or no electrostatic repulsion in these systems: the results were identical. The characteristics of the Newtonian film therefore remain unchanged regardless of the chemical systems observed, ranging from simple surfactants to amphiphilic polymers!

A Newtonian film is always described as a compact, highly ordered amphiphilic bilayer without liquid...