Study on the Structure Transition of CTAB/1-Butanol/Heptane/Water Microemulsions by Pt Ultramicroelectrode

Summary

Ultramicroelectrode voltammetric measurements have been used in the microemulsions of CTAB/1-butanol/heptane/water to calculate the diffusion coefficient which can reflect the structure transition of the microemulsions. It is found that with increasing water content of microemulsions, the apparent diffusion coefficient (D_app) of the probe decreases monotonically with three transition points. The first two transition points indicate the change in the structure of microemulsions, that is from water in oil region to bicontinuous phase and then to oil in water region, while the third one differs from previous reports. The time resolved fluorescence quenching (TRFQ) technique has been carried out to obtain the aggregation number of the microemulsions in order to analyze the abnormal transition point. According to the TRFQ experiment, we find that the aggregation number of the microemulsion decrease with water content increasing between 50%–60%, and then tend to identical. These results suggest that the last transition point of the diffusion coefficient is because of the forces between oil droplets. The self-diffusion coefficient of oil droplet in the o/w region is calculated simultaneously. Based on these experimental results, we analyze the composition of the interface between oil and water.