Why do phospholipids tend to spontaneously organize into a bilayer in a watery enviroment?
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Phospholipids form a bilayer for several reasons, including:
1. They conglomerate to disrupt the organization of the surrounding water molecules (increasing the entropy of the system) in a mechanism known as the hydrophobic effect.
2. The polar head is attracted to the polar water molecules and non polar tails are attracted to each other (think like-like interactions)
3. The system cannot form a micelle like fatty acids because of unsaturation (double bonds causing kinks) in the fatty acid tails, so it packs in a bilayer.
1. They conglomerate to disrupt the organization of the surrounding water molecules (increasing the entropy of the system) in a mechanism known as the hydrophobic effect.
2. The polar head is attracted to the polar water molecules and non polar tails are attracted to each other (think like-like interactions)
3. The system cannot form a micelle like fatty acids because of unsaturation (double bonds causing kinks) in the fatty acid tails, so it packs in a bilayer.
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To let the water pass through for osmosis