Sensitivity of nanostructure in charged cubosomes to phase changes triggered by ionic species in solution.

The phase behavior of dispersions comprising mixed ionic surfactant and phytantriol was precisely controlled by varying the ionic surfactant content in the mixed lipid and the ionic strength in the system. Two important trends in the phase transition of the mixed lipid systems were identified: (1) An increase in the ionic surfactant content increased the curvature of the self-assembled system toward the hydrophobic region, resulting in the phase transition from cubic phase to lamellar phase. (2) An increase in ionic strength decreased repulsion between the headgroups of the ionic surfactant, resulting in a phase transition from lamellar phase to cubic phase. The phase transitions were confirmed using small-angle X-ray scattering and cryo-TEM and were strongly correlated with the visual turbidity of the dispersions. The lipid mixture with anionic surfactant showed high sensitivity to multivalent cations for triggering the phase transition, which may be a potential strategy to develop a detection/treatment system for toxic multivalent metallic cations such as chromium.