Shinoda-cuts, phase prisms

Figure 6 A schematic phase diagram cut at constant surfactant concentration through the temperature-composition phase prism of a ternary system with nonionic surfactant (Shinoda cut) showing the characteristic X-like extension of the isotropic liquid phase, L. Schematic drawings of the various microstructures are also shown.

Figure 3.1 Phase prism with different cuts, (a) Shinoda cut, (b) Kahlweit cut, and (c) Lund cut. The phase triangle, consisting of surfactant (S), oil (O), and water (W), becomes a phase prism with the dependence of temperature (T) that these systems have.

A section through the phase prism at constant surfactant concentration ( Shinoda-cut ) is particularly illustrative. This shows the interrelation between the temperature-dependence and the dependence on the water-to-oil ratio. By choosing the surfactant concentration to be slightly above 0, one obtains a phase behaviour that is illustrated schematically in Figure 17.4. This section contains a rich variety of microstructures, e.g. the microemulsion phase which has a surfactant monolayer structure and the lamellar phase and the sponge phase which both have a bilayer... 

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