Microemulsions efficiency

Byelov, D., Frielinghaus, H., Holderer, O., AUgaier, J. and Richter, D. (2004) Microemulsion efficiency boosting and the complementary effect. 1. Structural properties. Langmuir, 20, 10433-10443. 

In order to enhance the microemulsion efficiency, we exchanged the current TX-100 by CiEj surfactants with longer alkyl chains and respectively. The inves-... 

As mentioned earlier, a great deal of literature has dealt with the properties of heterogeneous liquid systems such as microemulsions, micelles, vesicles, and lipid bilayers in photosynthetic processes [114,115,119]. At externally polarizable ITIES, the control on the Galvani potential difference offers an extra variable, which allows tuning reaction paths and rates. For instance, the rather high interfacial reactivity of photoexcited porphyrin species has proved to be able to promote processes such as the one shown in Fig. 3(b). The inhibition of back ET upon addition of hexacyanoferrate in the photoreaction of Fig. 17 is an example of a photosynthetic reaction at polarizable ITIES [87,166]. At Galvani potential differences close to 0 V, a direct redox reaction involving an equimolar ratio of the hexacyanoferrate couple and TCNQ features an uphill ET of approximately 0.10 eV (see Fig. 4). However, the excited state of the porphyrin heterodimer can readily inject an electron into TCNQ and subsequently receive an electron from ferrocyanide. For illumination at 543 nm (2.3 eV), the overall photoprocess corresponds to a 4% conversion efficiency. 

BDS process. The pore size of the filter (0.2-1.0 xm) is selected such that the liquid phase, which is miscible with the liquid that is used to wet the filter, passes through the filter, while the second liquid phase remains. Thus, an aqueous filter is wet with a liquid, which is miscible with water, but immiscible with oil. The flow rate is chosen so as to prevent solid deposition through the filter. Although, such a separation process can be applied to any oil/water emulsion, it was particularly envisioned as part of a BDS process. One may ask, whether it would be more efficient to break a macroemulsion by filtering than it is by any other means Second, in the case of microemulsions, how efficient would such a filtration process be ... 

Potential applications of vitamin Bi2 in electrocatalytic degradation of dibromide and a-haloacetic acid pollutants has been demonstrated in aqueous buffers303,304 and in surfactant-stabilized emulsions.305 Electroreductive dehalogenations in water and microemulsions were also efficiently catalyzed by a vitamin Bi2 derivative grafted onto a polylysine-coated electrode.306... 

Unsaturated polyesters that are terminated by carboxylic acid groups at both ends of the chain after neutralization are efficient emulsifiers for lipophilic monomers [110] and thus act as self-emulsifying crosslinking agents in the ECP of these systems. Normal emulsions of EUP and comonomers have a white, milky appearance. With an appropriate structure and molar mass of the EUP and within a certain range of EUP/comonomer ratios, however, microemulsions are... 

Unsaturated polyesters with neutralized terminal carboxyl acid groups (EUP) are efficient emulsifiers which, at a sufficient concentration, may form aqueous microemulsions. Micro emulsions are liquid dispersions of translucent (opalescent or transparent) appearance. Their disperse phase contains particles of diameters between 20 and 80 nm which closely approaches the diameters (5-15 nm) of micelles [114]. 

The same authors also reported the dispersion of palladium nanoparticles in a water/AOT/n-hexane microemulsion by hydrogen gas reduction of PdClJ and its efficiency for hydrogenation of alkenes in organic solvents [79]. UV-visible spectroscopy and TEM analysis revealed the formation of Pd nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 4 to 10 nm. Three olefins (1-phenyl-l-cyclohexene, methyl trans-cinnamate, and trans-stilbene) were used as substrates for the catalytic hydrogenation experiments under 1 atm of H2 (Table 9.12). All of the Start-... 

The use of electrochemical methods for the destruction of aromatic organo-chlorine wastes has been reviewed [157]. Rusling, Zhang and associates [166, 167] have examined a stable, conductive, bicontinuous surfactant/soil/water microemulsion as a medium for the catalytic reduction of different pollutants. In soils contaminated with Arochlor 1260, 94% dechlorination was achieved by [Zn(pc)] (H2pc=phthalocyanine) as a mediator with a current efficiency of 50% during a 12-h electrolysis. Conductive microemulsions have also been employed for the destruction of aliphatic halides and DDT in the presence of [Co(bpy)3]2+ (bpy=2,2 -bipyridine) [168] or metal phthalocyanine tetrasulfonates [169]. 

Separation of antibiotics and cephalosporins can be achieved successfully by CZE because most of them are ionic species. As an alternative to CZE, antibiotics and cephalosporins have been separated by MEEKC. The separation of cephalosporins in different systems (micelles, mixed micelles, and microemulsions) was investigated. The best separation was achieved in microemulsions (Fig. 4). Figure 4 shows that cephalosporins have better affinity to ME in the ME systems than in the MC systems. The affinity of cephalosporins in the ME systems decreases with decrease in the migration time. The MEEKC was also particularly suitable for neutral cephalosporins that could not be separated by CZE or MEKC (14) (see Fig. 5). The method provided good reproducibility and rapid separation with high efficiency. 

Altria, K.D. (1999). Highly efficient and selective separations of a wide range of analytes obtained by an optimized microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography method. Chromatographia 49 457-464. 

From our research group Santra et al. [11,41,42] reported the development of novel luminescent nanoparticles composed of inorganic luminescent dye RuBpy, doped inside a sihca network. These dye-doped silica nanoparticles were synthesized using a w/o microemulsion of Tx-lOO/cyclohexane/ n-hexanol/water in which controlled hydrolysis of the TEOS leads to the formation of mono dispersed nanoparticles ranging from 5-400 nm. This research illustrates the efficiency of the microemulsion technique for the synthesis of uniform nanoparticles. These nanoparticles are suitable for biomarker application since they are much smaller than the cellular dimension and they are highly photostable in comparison to most commonly used organic dyes. It was shown that maximum liuninescence intensity was achieved when the dye content was around 20%. Moreover, for demonstration... 

Semiconductor nanoclusters trapped in AOT w/o microemulsions are reported to exhibit longer excited state lifetimes (about 10-100 ns) than those in aqueous solution or in monophasic organic solvents [213]. Clearly the surfactant-nanoparticle interaction is very important not only in restricting growth but also in extending the hfetimes of the excited states. Tata et al. [214] have shown that the removal of water from the micelles leads to a strong increase in fluorescence intensity, and the addition of specific quencher, 4-hydroxythiophenol, leads to variations in quenching efficiencies. 

In order to improve the luminescence behaviors and obtain better quantum yields, Zhang et al. [245] have suggested a reflux treatment by diluting w/o microemulsions of CdS nanoparticles with the same w/o microemulsions but substituting the reactant solution with H2O. The water in the w/o microemulsion droplets was removed by the co-surfactant (n-hexanol), the trap sites on the nanoparticle surface decreased improving the crystalHnity and thus the fluorescence efficiency. 

Finally, very recently Shea et al. successfully employed inverse microemulsion polymerisation for the preparation of MIP beads in the tens of nanometers range using hydrophilic peptides as template molecules. In this case it was the template molecule which was prefunctionahsed with a hydrophobic chain to orient it towards the surface of the growing bead during polymerisation. The rebinding efficiency of the resulting nanoparticles was however found to depend markedly on the nature of the employed template and to be lower than that recorded with beads of similar... 

The goal of surfactant enhanced subsurface remediation is to maximize the contaminant extraction efficiency while optimizing system economics. Since middle phase microemulsions maximize the solubilization while minimizing the oil-water interfacial tension, these systems are highly desirable, especially for NAPLs lighter than water, where downward... 

Nonetheless, sensitization by dyes held within the cores of microemulsions can be easily accomplished [69]. Such sensitization is an important component of photogalvanic effects, the magnitude of which are significantly enhanced in the non-homogeneous environment of a microemulsion [70], The hydrophilic core of an water-in-oil microemulsion can concentrate cation radicals formed via interfacial electron transfer and hence increase the yield of subsequent dimerization the dimethylnaphthalene cation radical exhibits a dimerization equilibrium constant of nearly 500 in a microemulsion [71]. For similar reasons, hexylviologen acts as a much more efficient relay than methyl viologen in a CTAB/hexanol microemulsion [72]. 

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