Micellisation

Michael Leach

Chemists call
certain chemicals
‘surfactant molecules’.

When cast adrift
                            in water
                                            (an aqueous
                            solution),

these chemicals
randomly                          move
amidst                               all the encircling 
              H₂O molecules.

Eventually, they come to a critical       concentration.

Fully immersed &           dis    -            persed
          in H₂O,
                                 the separate
                                 surfactant 
                                 molecules
                                 start forming close-knit spheres
   called micelles.

                                   This is because:

                         there’s a part        there’s a part
of each surfactant molecule       of each surfactant molecule
             with this innate fear        with this innate love
                                of water.       of water.

Their hydrophobic tails
stay away from the water
while their hydrophilic heads
                                                     face outwards
                                                                                  fearlessly.

Aggregated
in their social spheres,
the surfactants start to reduce
the tension at the water’s surface.

Spontaneously,
they emulsify
                  by welcoming
                                      insoluble molecules
                                     adrift in the aqueous
                         solution
into their social 
spheres.

These supramolecular surfactants              form emulsions
then proceed to perform                        fantastic feats
in the name of health                       care, cleaning
& myriad other                           applications.

For instance,
they               emerge
in household detergents
in the realistic hope
of one day

spiriting
insoluble molecules—
oils & waxes—
                                                   away.

The Science

Micellisation is a dynamic phenomenon whereby individual surfactants — molecules comprising water-loving (hydrophilic) heads and water-fearing (hydrophobic) tails —aggregate in aqueous environments to form multi-molecule (supramolecular) assemblies called ‘micelles’. Micellisation is an act of emergence: the emergence of micelles. In an individual micelle, the hydrophilic heads face outwards to protect the hydrophobic tails from the surrounding water (H₂O) molecules. This provides micelle cores in which poorly water-soluble substances (e.g. oils and waxes) can be sequestered, leading to the formation of emulsions. I learned about micellisation while studying pharmaceutics as part of a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree at La Trobe University, Bendigo. I find it to be a fascinating and inherently poetic topic. This dynamic phenomenon occurs within a range of commercial products, from aqueous injections of vitamins A, D, E and K to various disinfectants and detergents.

The Poet

Michael J. Leach (@m_jleach) lives on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Bendigo, Australia and works as a senior lecturer at Monash Rural Health. Michael has a background in pharmacy, biostatistics, health informatics, pharmacoepidemiology, and poetry. He won the UniSA Mental Health and Wellbeing Poetry Competition (2015) and received a commendation in the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine (2021). Michael’s poetry resides in scientific journals such as Medical Journal of Australia, literary journals such as Cordite Poetry Review, and in his chapbook, Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020). His first full-length poetry collection, Natural Philosophies, is forthcoming from Recent Work Press.

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