Title: micelle
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - micelle
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.M03889
Status: current

Definition
Surfactants in solution are often association colloids, that is, they tend to form aggregates of colloidal dimensions, which exist in equilibrium with the molecules or ions from which they are formed. Such aggregates are termed micelles.

Related Terms
- Surfactants: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S06194
- association: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00472
- colloidal: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01172
- inverted micelle: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/I03151

Source
- PAC, 1994, 66, 1077. 'Glossary of terms used in physical organic chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1994)' on page 1140 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199466051077)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/M03889/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/M03889/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/M03889/xml

Citation: Citation: 'micelle' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.M03889
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Accessed: 2026-06-24T16:20:06+00:00