Micellar Solutions and Microemulsions

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.

Contenu
One Basic Interactions, Statistical Mechanics, and Computer Simulations.- 1. Interparticle Correlations in Concentrated Charged Colloidal SolutionsTheory and Experiment.- 2. Statistical Mechanics of Interacting Double Layers.- 3. Computer Simulation Studies of the Electrical Double Layer.- 4. The Ionic Environment of Rod-like Polyelectrolytes.- 5. Experimental Study of Solvation Forces.- 6. Statistical Mechanics of Confined Systems: The Solvent-Induced Force Between Smooth Parallel Plates.- 7. Computer Experiments for Structure and Thermodynamic and Transport Properties of Colloidal Fluids.- 8. Analytical Results for the Scattering Intensity of Concentrated Dispersions of Polydispersed Hard-Sphere Colloids.- Two Statistical Thermodynamics of Phase Behavior and Critical Phenomena.- 9. Theory of Structure and Phase Transitions in Globular Microemulsions.- 10. Theory of Thermodynamic Properties and Phase Separation of Self-Associating Micellar Solutions.- 11. Film Flexibility of Amphiphilic Layers and Structure of Middle-Phase Microemulsions.- 12. Low Interfacial Tensions in Microemulsion Systems.- 13. Structure and Properties of Three-Component Microemulsions Near the Critical Point.- 14. Field Variables and Critical Phenomena in Microemulsions.- 15. On the Structure of Five-Component Microemulsions.- 16. Transport Properties of Microemulsions.