Structure of liquid crystalline aerosol-OT and its alkylammonium salts.

Aerosol-OT is a widely used anionic surfactant, and its lyotropic properties have been studied extensively. However, neat AOT is itself liquid crystalline. We carried out an X-ray study of neat AOT sodium salt, as well as of AOT-n-decyl-, n-dodecyl-, n-tetradecyl-, and n-hexadecylammonium salts.