Structure of Reverse Micelles Alkanes and Aromatic Oils

2 Structure of Reverse Micelles Alkanes and Aromatic Oils 

In the following section, structure of diglycerol fatty acid ester nonionic surfactant micelles in n-alkanes (straight-chain hydrocarbon oils from octane to hexadecane), and in two aromatic oils (phenyl octane and ethyl benzene) will be described. 

The wide range of applications and increasing interests on the studies of nonionic surfactant reverse micelles or W/O microemulsions has shown their significance in colloid and polymer sciences. Due to biocompatibilily and biodegradability of the glycerol-based nonionic surfactants, studies on the self-assemblies of these surfactants in polar and nonpolar solvents offer various practical applications in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. 

Reverse micelles are expected to form in the ternary mixtures of surfactant/oil/ water and are often in spherical shape. Despite this anticipation, this chapter 

This chapter has shown a possible route to the free structural control of glycerol-based nonionic surfactants reverse micelles, and it is found that the solvent properties, temperature, composition, chain length of surfactant and headgroup size, and water can be the tunable parameters for the structural variation of reverse micelles. 

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