PEG 12-acyloxy-stearates are used as drug delivery carriers that have low cell damage effects. The mechanical and physical properties surrounding these processes and surfactants are still however not known. In this study, the physicochemical micellar properties of PEG 12-acyloxy-stearates were characterized by optical microscopic, nuclear magnetic resonance, and small-angle X-ray scattering techniques. We determined the phase diagrams of the surfactants as a function of surfactant concentration and temperature, the micellar size and shape, and micellar dynamics. We found that each surfactant has a micellar, cubic Im3m, and hexagonal phase. The aggregation number in the discrete cubic phase, as determined by small-angle X-ray scattering, was approximately 150 for each surfactant, and showed no measurable chain-length dependence. The diffusion coefficients of the surfactant showed a discontinuity between the micellar and cubic phases, where the cubic phases gave very low values on the order of 10(-16) m(2) s(-1): this value indicates a non-bicontinuous cubic structure. In summary, these surfactants behave to a large extent as nonionic poly(ethylene glycol) surfactants with extended PEG headgroups.