Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.103, No.44, 9432-9441, 1999
Temperature-dependent properties of water-in-oil microemulsions with amphiphilic triblock-copolymer. Part I: Dynamics, particle interactions, and network formation
The properties of pseudo-ternary mixtures of p-xylene with the amphiphilic triblock-copolymer PEO13PPO30-PEO13 (Pluronic L64) and water in the L-2-phase (water-in-oil microemulsions) are examined. The applied experimental methods are electric conductivity, time-resolved luminescence quenching (TRLQ), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and rheology. Only the microemulsion with the largest water mass fraction, close to maximum solubilization, exhibits a percolation transition of the electric conductivity when decreasing the temperature. Luminescence quenching and light scattering results prove that the reverse micelle structure is maintained in the highly conducting state. Time-resolved luminescence quenching shows that on the submicrosecond and millisecond time-scale different exchange processes occur. The fast exchange is attributed to intracluster processes. Their rate increases with increasing water content and decreasing temperature, while the inter-cluster exchange remains very slow. At the lowest water mass fraction a temperature decrease leads to a slower exchange. The relaxation time distribution functions obtained from dynamic light scattering show in the entire investigated temperature and water concentration range three diffusive relaxation modes, which stem from unimers, water-swollen reverse micelles and clusters. The cluster size increases with the water content and decreasing temperature and reaches a time-averaged size with the onset of percolation. Static low shear viscosity measurements show a strong increase of the microemulsion viscosity and also a pseudoplastic behavior when lowering the temperature, while no indications for viscoelastic properties are found. The experimental findings are discussed in a self-consistent picture of exothermic and gradual network built-up where reverse micelle Linking occurs via the two hydrophilic moieties of the triblock-copolymer molecules. The cluster lifetime, solute migration mechanism and the role of water for the reverse micelle interior are considered. Important and obvious differences of L-2-microemulsions with amphiphilic triblock-copolymer to those with short-chained surfactants are elucidated, and the necessity of applying a variety of methods for achieving an understanding of the complex liquids is emphasized.