The effect of the composition of the oil phase on the microstructure and dielectric behavior of water-in-oil microemulsions

Abstract

A comparison is made between the clustering process occurring the sodium-di-2-ethylhexyl-sulfosuccinate microemulsion in the four organic solvents: n-decane, iso-octane, n-heptane, and n-hexane. The clustering process is studied by small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy. The structural parameters obtained from the analysis of the SAXS experiments using the sticky hard sphere droplet model are used to calculate the dielectric permittivity and are compared with results from the dielectric relaxation experiments. It is found that an increase in the attraction between microemulsion droplets when the chain-length of the solvent molecule is increased.