What is Micellar water?
In: 19
Water is ionic (has electrical charge polarity, one side is positive, one is negative). So, ions and polar molecules fit into water pretty easily (the water aligns to the charge and tends to form structures around the solute ion, keeping it in solution).
Many organic molecules are non-polar, so they do not mix well with water. One way to get around that problem, and make the organic molecules able to be taken up in the water, is to add a partly-polar organic molecule like fatty acids, say, and the polar ends all join together on one side, and happily play with nearby water molecules (form loose bonds), and the other (far) end is non-polar and is repelled away from the water.
A micelle is a structure that forms when many such dual-molecules join together and form a sort of a bubble with the polar sides on the outside (facing the water) and the non-polar parts on the inside. Thus, the micelle aids the uptake of non-polar molecules into the generally polar/ionic solvent which is water. The non-polar parts can be isolated to the insides of the micelles, and thus you can get sort of a mixture between polar/ionic water and non-polar “islands” that float around easily.
I presume “micellated water” (a term I never have used) would be water in which there is a high enough content of those dual-nature molecules that micelles have formed in useful concentrations and the water will relatively readily take up organic molecules it would normally refuse.
Latest Answers