Microemulsions Structure And Dynamics

This book describes the microemulsion phenomenon in a systematic manner and not only provides an up-to-date introduction to this topic but aslo serves as the basis for further development in the area.The progress of microemulsion research has taken place in well-defined stages. The introduction period was founded on Schulman‘s original discovery and was, as expected, focused on the interfacial free energy. Because Schulman obtained his microemulsions from a macroemulsion by the addition of a cosurfactant.The present stage is characterized by an extensively enhanced knowledge about structure and dynamics in these systems. This has led to the realization that the structure of the microemulsions is related both to solutions with critical behaviour and long range order structures, the lyotropic liquid crystals. These two aspects have been elucidated independently by the French groups and by the Lund Spectroscopy group.

This book describes the microemulsion phenomenon in a systematic manner and not only provides an up-to-date introduction to this topic but aslo serves as the basis for further development in the area.The progress of microemulsion research has taken place in well-defined stages. The introduction period was founded on Schulman‘s original discovery and was, as expected, focused on the interfacial free energy. Because Schulman obtained his microemulsions from a macroemulsion by the addition of a cosurfactant.The present stage is characterized by an extensively enhanced knowledge about structure and dynamics in these systems. This has led to the realization that the structure of the microemulsions is related both to solutions with critical behaviour and long range order structures, the lyotropic liquid crystals. These two aspects have been elucidated independently by the French groups and by the Lund Spectroscopy group.

During the last decade there has been a renewed interest in research on supramolecular assemblies in solutions, such as micelles and microemulsions, not only because of their extensive applications in industries dealing with catalysts, detergency, biotechnology, and enhanced oil recovery, but also due to the development of new and more powerful experimental and theoretical tools for probing the microscopic behavior of these systems. Prominent among the array of the newly available experimental techniques are photon correlation spectroscopy, small-angle neutron and X-ray scattering, and neutron spin-echo and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies. On the theoretical side, the traditionally emphasized thermodynamic approach to the study of the phase behavior of self-assembled systems in solutions is gradually being replaced by statistical mechanical studies of semi-micro scopic and microscopic models of the assemblies. Since the statistical mechanical approach demands as its starting point the microscopic struc tural information of the self-assembled system, the experimental determina tion of the structures of micelles and microemulsions becomes of paramount interest. In this regard the scattering techniques mentioned above have played an important role in recent years and will continue to do so in the future. In applying the scattering techniques to the supramolecular species in solution, one cannot often regard the solution to be ideal. This is because the inter-aggregate interaction is often long-ranged since it is coulombic in nature and the interparticle correlations are thus appreciable.

The effective use of microemulsions has increased dramatically during the past few decades as major industrial applications have expanded in a variety of fields. Microemulsions: Properties and Applications provides a complete and systematic assessment of all topics affecting microemulsion performance and discusses the fundamental characteristics, t

Dynamics of Surfactant Self-Assemblies explains the dynamics of micellar equilibria, tracking surfactant exchange, and micelle formation/breakdown processes. Highlighting the structural similarities of amphiphilic block copolymers to surfactants, this volume elucidates the dynamics of more complex self-assemblies that surfactants and amphiphilic bl

During the last decade, various powerful experimental tools have been developed, such as small angle X-ray and neutron scattering, X-ray and neutron reflection from interfaces, neutron spin-echo spectroscopy and quasi-elastic multiple light scattering and large scale computer simulations. Due to the rapid progress brought about by these techniques, one witnesses a resurgence of interest in the physicochemical properties of colloids, surfactants and macromolecules in solution. Although these disciplines have a long history, they are at present rapidly transforming into a new, interdisciplinary research area generally known as complex liquids or soft condensed matter physics: names that reflect the considerable involvement of the chemical and condensed matter physicists. This book is based on lectures given at a NATO ASI held in the summer of 1991 and discusses these new developments, both in theory and experiment. It constitutes the most up-to-date and comprehensive summary of the entire field.