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Transition from a sponge-like to a foam-like nanostructure in a water-rich L3 phase : A confirmation

Menold, Philipp LU ; Strey, Reinhard ; Olsson, Ulf LU ; Takacs, Zoltan LU ; Topgaard, Daniel LU and Stubenrauch, Cosima (2025) In Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 705.
Abstract

Early studies on water - n-alkane - ionic surfactant microemulsions provide first hints for the possible existence of a foam-like nanostructure, i.e. a dense packing of polyhedral nanometer-sized water droplets separated by a thin layer of a continuous oil phase. Indeed, we found a foam-like structure in the system water/NaCl - hexyl methacrylate (C6MA) - dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium salt (AOT). We were able to locate an isotropic one-phase channel, the L3 phase, emanating from the pseudo-binary system water/NaCl - AOT at ambient temperature and extending towards lower NaCl content with increasing oil content. We showed in our previous work that already upon addition of small amounts of oil to the L3... (More)

Early studies on water - n-alkane - ionic surfactant microemulsions provide first hints for the possible existence of a foam-like nanostructure, i.e. a dense packing of polyhedral nanometer-sized water droplets separated by a thin layer of a continuous oil phase. Indeed, we found a foam-like structure in the system water/NaCl - hexyl methacrylate (C6MA) - dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium salt (AOT). We were able to locate an isotropic one-phase channel, the L3 phase, emanating from the pseudo-binary system water/NaCl - AOT at ambient temperature and extending towards lower NaCl content with increasing oil content. We showed in our previous work that already upon addition of small amounts of oil to the L3 phase the conductivities become very low and the viscosities very high. Freeze fracture electron microscopy allowed us to visualize the anticipated foam-like nanostructure. To complement our previous work, we investigated the structural transition in the L3 channel by NMR self-diffusion measurements. The new data unambiguously confirm the existence of a foam-like structure. Based on this confirmation we offer an explanation for the topological transition to a foam-like structure, which one can also consider as a “super-swollen reverse micellar phase” – the first of its kind reported so far.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
NMR self-diffusion, measurements, Sponge-like and foam-like L3 phase, Topological transition
in
Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects
volume
705
article number
135747
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85209254922
ISSN
0927-7757
DOI
10.1016/j.colsurfa.2024.135747
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c1389572-00f9-46d8-858b-d6e06cabefec
date added to LUP
2025-02-20 13:06:31
date last changed
2025-04-04 13:58:40
@article{c1389572-00f9-46d8-858b-d6e06cabefec,
  abstract     = {{<p>Early studies on water - n-alkane - ionic surfactant microemulsions provide first hints for the possible existence of a foam-like nanostructure, i.e. a dense packing of polyhedral nanometer-sized water droplets separated by a thin layer of a continuous oil phase. Indeed, we found a foam-like structure in the system water/NaCl - hexyl methacrylate (C<sub>6</sub>MA) - dioctyl sulfosuccinate sodium salt (AOT). We were able to locate an isotropic one-phase channel, the L<sub>3</sub> phase, emanating from the pseudo-binary system water/NaCl - AOT at ambient temperature and extending towards lower NaCl content with increasing oil content. We showed in our previous work that already upon addition of small amounts of oil to the L<sub>3</sub> phase the conductivities become very low and the viscosities very high. Freeze fracture electron microscopy allowed us to visualize the anticipated foam-like nanostructure. To complement our previous work, we investigated the structural transition in the L<sub>3</sub> channel by NMR self-diffusion measurements. The new data unambiguously confirm the existence of a foam-like structure. Based on this confirmation we offer an explanation for the topological transition to a foam-like structure, which one can also consider as a “super-swollen reverse micellar phase” – the first of its kind reported so far.</p>}},
  author       = {{Menold, Philipp and Strey, Reinhard and Olsson, Ulf and Takacs, Zoltan and Topgaard, Daniel and Stubenrauch, Cosima}},
  issn         = {{0927-7757}},
  keywords     = {{NMR self-diffusion, measurements; Sponge-like and foam-like L3 phase; Topological transition}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects}},
  title        = {{Transition from a sponge-like to a foam-like nanostructure in a water-rich L<sub>3</sub> phase : A confirmation}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2024.135747}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.colsurfa.2024.135747}},
  volume       = {{705}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}