Many amphiphilic molecules (surfactants, biological lipids, etc) can form three-dimensionally ordered liquid-crystallien structures in thep resence of water [1,2]. The most common of such complex lyotropic mesophases are thebicontinuous cubic phases [3], which appear to be based upon underlying periodic minimal surfaces [4]. For the inverse versions of these phases, the structures consist of two interwoven networks of water channels, separated by a single, continuous fluid lipid bilayer, typically 40 A thick. Such cubic phases typically have lattice parameters in the range 80 - 200 A, although in certain circumstances they can swell to much larger dimensions [5,6].
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