Publications

A small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) study of dense water-in-oil droplet microemulsions composed of water, decane, and AOT [sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate] was performed in order to clarify phase behavior with applied pressure and the corresponding structural phase transitions. SAXS spectra were collected for pressures between ambient pressure (0.1 MPa) and 80 MPa and droplet volume fraction, phi, from 0.40 to 0.70. With increasing phi, the mean radius of droplets decreased slightly and polydispersity increased. With increasing pressure, the droplet structure transformed to a two-phase system with coexistence of lamellar and droplet structures, independent of the droplet volume fraction. These results suggest that, with increasing pressure, the increasing inter-droplet attractive force controls the pressure variation of the structure. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.