Derivation of analytical expressions for the electrical potential distribution in lipid structures.

The electrical potential inside a lipid structure, which is described by a modified Poisson-Boltzmann equation in the literature (Borukhov et al. Electrochim. Acta 2000, 46, 221), is solved, taking into account the effects of ionic sizes. Here, a micelle comprises an ionic surfactant layer and an aqueous core; the dissociation of the former yields a charged surface. The governing equation, which was solved numerically in a previous study for spherical geometry (Hsu et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2003, 107, 14429), is solved analytically in this study for planar, cylindrical, and spherical geometries. The analytical results obtained are readily applicable for the evaluation of the spatial distributions of counterions inside a lipid structure. We show that if the linear size of a reverse micelle is fixed, the degree of dissociation of the surfactant layer follows the order planar > cylindrical > spherical.