Polymer induced phase coexistence in systems of lamellar phases

Abstract

The effect of adding nonadsorbing polymer to a lamellar phase of surfactant bilayers is studied theoretically. We find that the polymer produces coexistence between two lamellar phases of different layer spacings. The coexistence region is a closed loop, as in the experiments of Ficheux et al. [J. de Physique II 5 823 (1995)]. Within our model the coexistence is driven by depletion.