화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol.235, No.1, 33-45, 2001
Vesicle phases with semipolar additives
We examined the influence of semipolar additives on the phase behavior of mixed zwitterionic surfactant/consurfactant systems. It is shown that in these systems with increasing concentration esters like hexylacetate (HA) and ketones like hexylmethylketone (HMK) can behave both like consurfactants and like hydrocarbons. In solutions of 200 mM tetradecyldimethylamineoxide (TDMAO)/cosurfactant the additives cause first a phase transformation from the micellar L-1 phase to a lamellar L-alpha phase. Upon further increasing concentration, the L-alpha phase is transformed into a microemulsion. The L-alpha phase consists of densely packed multilamellar vesicles. The vesicles are shown by electron microscopy. The multilamellar character of the vesicles is also reflected in the conductivity of the phase. It is up to 10 times lower than the conductivity of the L-1 phase. In some systems the vesicles are transformed on rest into a multidomain stacked L-alpha phase. It is furthermore demonstrated that the two-phase L-1/L-alpha region in these systems is very narrow. In situations where enough HA is added to be close to the boundary of the L-1 phase, it is shown that very small amounts of cosurfactant can transform the L-1 phase into the L-alpha phase. In extreme situations 1 mM cosurfactant is sufficient for transforming the L-1 phase with 200 mM TDMAO into the L-alpha phase. In the investigated systems the L-alpha phase is a highly viscoelastic fluid in which the storage modulus is 1 order of magnitude larger than the loss modulus. Besides the conventional way to prepare samples by adding all ingredients and stirring the solution intensively, all investigated systems were additionally prepared without applying any shear forces. In a surfactant/ cosurfactant solution the additive was brought into the sample by diffusion. The phase behavior of both types of samples showed fundamental differences in some cases, which give insight into the influence of shear forces on these systems.