Abstract
The thermodynamic and chemical structural aspects of surfactant self-assembly in aqueous systems have been much studied. On the other hand, for oil-water interfaces the effects of chemical structures of surfactants and solvents have received less attention. This review focuses on the surfactant chemical effects in low dielectric solvents, in particular formation and properties of surfactant films at oil-water interfaces. For this purpose, reversed micelles (RMs) and water-in-oil (W/O) microemulsions (μEs) serve as model systems, since electrostatic effects are minimized, allowing a focus on chain architecture of the surfactants and oil solvents themselves. It is noted that chemical structure can have profound effects on stability and self-assembly, suggesting a possibility of identifying unified chemical principles for designing and formulating systems across various thermodynamic conditions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 9133-9152 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Soft Matter |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 48 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 29 Nov 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:A. R. thanks Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC) of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UK for a PhD scholarship. A. R. thanks the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission (CSC) – which is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UK – for a PhD scholarship.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Royal Society of Chemistry.