Chain length compatibility microemulsions

Effect of Chain Length Compatibility on Monolayers, Foams, and Macro- and Microemulsions... 

The gas/liquid and liquid/liquid systems are relevant to biomedical and engineering applications. The large interfacial area in foams, macro- and microemulsions is suitable for rapid mass transfer from gas to liquid or liquid to gas in foams and from one liquid to another or vice versa in macro- and microemulsions. The formation and stability of these systems may be influenced by the chain length compatibility which may also influence the flow through porous media behavior of these systems. Therefore, the present communication deals with the effect of chain length compatibility on the properties of monolayers, foams, macro- and microemulsions. An attempt is made to correlate the chain length compatibility effects with surface properties of mixed surfactants and their flow behavior in porous media in relation to enhanced oil recovery. 

Garti N, Aserin A, Ezrahi S and Wachtel E. 1995. Water solubilization and chain-length compatibility in nonionic microemulsions. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 428-436. 

For this reason, the solubilization capacity of the microemulsions formulated with IPM is lower than that observed with R (+)-LlM. The oil behavior can also be governed by the chain compatibility between oil and surfactants. The change in the solubilization capacity behavior of the two oils when the mixing ratio (w/w) of ethoxylated mono-di-glyceride increases to 3/1 or in the quaternary systems water/ethoxylated mono-di-glyceride/oil could be attributed to the better chain compatibility between the mixed surfactants chains and the IPM chain length. 

Only a few claims of the discovery of nonspherical structures in microemulsions by TRLQ have been published as yet. The quenching of Rulbpy) " by MV- in water-in-oil microemulsions of the nonionic amphiphile C12E4 in decane indicates the presence of nonglobular structures at high water/surfactant ratios. This comes mainly from the fact that if spherical structures are assumed, the aggregation numbers estimated by TRLQ would imply unreasonably small areas per surfactant at the interface, and simultaneously the radius of the aqueous droplet that would far exceed the length of the polar chain (four ethylene oxides) of the surfactant. A pool of pure water would thus be present in the middle of the droplet, and the EO tails would be compressed close to the interface. It appears more likely that the micelles take on a nonspherical shape, and this would furthermore be compatible with the observed decay curves [47]. 

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