Post Centennial of Micelles: an Overview

Micellesof different types and properties are basically formed by the assembly of surfactants.The conditions for the formation of micelles, their shapes, sizes and morphologies are also different, and are discussed for surfactants, block copolymers and ionic liquids in the present article.Theories by Debye and others, Markov chain model, ladder model of micelle growth are employed to understand in detail the thermodynamics of micelles and mixed micelles formation.Apart from these, other concepts like effect of additives on micelle formation, application of polymeric, multicompartment micelles in drug delivery, fundamentals of formation of single and double critical micelle concentration and computer simulation methods for amphiphile aggregation are reviewed in the present study.