ABSTRACT
Yet other ensembles can be considered. Recently, the onset of droplet aggregation in microemulsions was discussed [50] in the context of the above formulas for the free energy. The appropriate ensemble in a microemulsion system is determined by the two constraints of fixed total amount of surfactant and of fixed total amount of the component inside the micro-emulsion droplet, e.g., the amount of water when we consider water-inoil microemulsions. These two constraints determine the total amount of surface area available to the surfactant and the total amount of droplet volume available to the internal phase. In this analysis, instead of a vesicle adhered to a substrate, the formation of a microemulsion dimer was considered and the phase diagram for droplet-dimer coexistence was constructed [50].
