Equilibrium penetration of monolayers VI: cholesterol-cetrimonium bromide system.

Equilibrium surface pressure-area isotherms for the penetration of cholesterol monolayers by the surfactant cetrimonium bromide are presented. From these isotherms, the saturation adsorptions of surfactant for various surface concentrations of cholesterol were calculated. Plots of adsorption against the inverse of the area per cholesterol molecule revealed two linear revealed two linear regions, corresponding to penetration at high and low monolayer areas. At high monolayer areas, surfactant adsorption into accessible areas of the surface was similar to adsorption at a monolayer-free surface. In this region, packing of cholesterol and surfactant molecules on the surface lowered the effective cross-sectional area of the cholesterol molecule. However, at low monolayer areas, adsorption was determined by the size of the surfactant ion and the effective area of the cholesterol molecule was equal to the collapse area of a pure cholesterol monolayer.