ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a description of the few known lipid aggregate structures with defined stereochemical features. It relates the observed “supramolecular” structures to the molecular structures of the monomers. The chapter summarizes the existing evidence for the “mechanisms” of aggregation, and compares and evaluates the solvation capabilities of the various lipid aggregates. It provides a description of planar crystal sheets and surface monolayers, and continues to discuss geometric molecular models which are in use to deduce ill-defined superstructures of micelles and “rod” structures in liquid crystals. Planar surface monolayers, vesicles, and extended micellar fibers constitute the long-lived lipid aggregates, which can be used to synthesize organized reaction systems. Since it turned out that self-organization processes and curvature of lipid aggregates are highly dependent on the hydrophobic effect of oligomethylene chains and the chirality of head groups, spontaneous separations of enantiomers and diastereomers are studied.
