How to Characterize Amorphous Shapes: The Tale of a Reverse Micelle

Aerosol-OT reverse micelles represent a chemical construct where surfactant molecules self-assemble to stabilize water nanodroplets ~1-10 nm in diameter. Although commonly assumed to adopt a spherical shape, all-atom molecular dynamics simulations and some experimental studies predict a non-spherical shape. If these aggregates are not spherical, then what shape do they take? Because the tools needed to evaluate the shape of something that lacks regular structure, order, or symmetry are not well developed, we present a set of three intuitive metrics- coordinate-pair eccentricity, convexity, and the curvature distribution- that estimate the shape of an amorphous object and we demonstrate their use on a simulated Aerosol-OT reverse micelle. These metrics are all well-established methods and principles in mathematics, and each provides unique information about the shape. Together, these metrics provide intuitive descriptions of amorphous shapes, facilitate ways to quantify those shapes, and follow their changes over time.

Rehydration of Dried Mushroom Specimens With Aerosol OT for Scanning Electron Microscopy

Morphological, anatomical and ultrastructural characteristics are important for taxonomical and phylogenetic studies of fungi. For scanning electron microscopy, usually only dry voucher specimens are available. For dried plant material, Aerosol OT has been shown to be a suitable rehydration agent for SEM preparation. For swelling and stabilization of fungal cells, however, this simple method does not yield satisfactory results. Here, we show that a combination of Aerosol OT with ultrasonic bath and rehydration in a vacuum desiccator is a good method to distend fungal cells like basidiospores, pleuro- and cheilocystidia for SEM analysis. Tissues of several species of Agaricomycetes with diverse morphological structures were exposed to the treatment. Diverse concentrations of Aerosol OT as well as treatments in an ultrasonic bath and a vacuum desiccator were tested to optimize the surface reconstruction and to reduce preparation artefacts. The evaluated rehydration method is a cheap, quick and nontoxic method to prepare dried specimens of fungal cells for SEM analysis.

Complexation of Pluronic L62 (EO6)–(PO34)–(EO6)/aerosol-OT (sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate) in aqueous solutions investigated by small angle neutron scattering

We investigate the phase behaviours of Pluronic L62 in aqueous solution in the presence of aerosol-OT (AOT) molecules by small angle neutron scattering (SANS).