The limited stability of catanionic vesicles has discouraged their wide use for encapsulation and controlled
release of active substances. Their structure can easily break down to form lamellar phases, micelles or rearrange
into multilamellar vesicles, as a consequence of small changes in their composition. However, despite the limited
stability, catanionic vesicles possess an attractive architecture, which is able to efficiently encapsulate both
hydrophobic and hydrophilic molecules. Therefore, improving the stability of the vesicles, as well as the control
on unilamellar structures, are prerequisites for their wider application range. This study focuses on the impact of
β-cyclodextrins for the stabilization of SDS/CTAB catanionic vesicles. Molar ratio and sample preparation
procedures have been investigated to evaluate the temperature stability of catanionic vesicles. Diffusion and
spectroscopic techniques evidenced that when β-cyclodextrins are added, unilamellar structures are stabilized
above the multilamellar-unilamellar vesicles critical temperature. The results evidence encouraging perspectives
for the use of vesicular nanoreservoirs for drug depot applications.
