Bending moduli and spontaneous curvature of the monolayer in a surfactant bilayer.

We developed a method to evaluate the mechanical properties of the monolayers in symmetric surfactant bilayers using self-consistent field theory. A specific boundary condition is used to impose the same curvature onto the two opposing monolayers at the surfactant chemical potential equal to that of the corresponding homogeneously curved bilayer. Typically, the spontaneous monolayer curvature not equal 0 and its value depend on the surfactant architecture. This is of importance for the thermodynamics and topology of lamellar surfactant phases. Furthermore, it may be relevant in processes involving biological membranes, for example, the fusion and budding of vesicles and the incorporation of proteins in lipid bilayers.