ABSTRACT
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................... 72 Symbols and Terminologies ................................................................................ 72 References ........................................................................................................... 72
Mixtures of aqueous electrolytes, hydrocarbons, and amphiphilic compounds have been the subjects of extensive research, especially those systems forming amorphous isotropic solutions, called microemulsions. Several books and papers have treated this subject [1-5]. The term microemulsion was rst introduced by Hoar and Schulman [5]. Microemulsions are thermodynamically stable, isotropic, transparent colloidal solutions of low viscosity, consisting of three components: a surfactant (amphiphile), a polar solvent (usually water), and a nonpolar solvent (oil) [1-7]. The surfactant monomers in these uids reside at oil water interface and effectively lower the interfacial-free energy, resulting in the formation of optically clear, thermodynamically stable formulations. The innate formation of colloidal particles is typically up to nanometer scale; globular droplets each
surrounded by monolayer of surfactant molecules and, thus, disperse in the bulk solvent. In microemulsion, solubilization of one phase into another is affected by the stubble balance of attractive and repulsive forces [8,9]. Depending upon the nature of the bulk solvent, microemulsions are classi ed as oil in water (o/w), water in oil (w/o), or reverse micelles and bicontinuous microemulsions (Scheme 3.1).
