ABSTRACT
Radiation............................................................................... 303 4.2 Contrast V aria tio n .............................................................. 305 4.3 Indirect Fourier Transformation......................................... 307 4.4 Scattering from M icelles..................................................... 308 4.5 Micellar Form Factors ....................................................... 309 4.6 Inter Micellar Interaction.................................................... 310 4.7 Swollen Lamellar P hases..................................................... 311 4.8 Bicontinuous Microemulsions ........................................... 313
Acknowledgements............................................................................... 315
Glossary of Sym bols.......................................................................... 315
References............................................................................................. 318
1 Introduction
Microemulsions have become an important and rapidly growing research field in colloid and surfactant science during the last two decades, despite or even because of their complex nature. The immense interest in these systems has several facets. Theoretical aspects concern the interplay of molecular forces leading to molecular self-assembly, modelling of biological systems, and compartmentalised systems as micro-reactors for chemical reactions or nano-particle synthesis. Technical applications in food-technology, paint manufacturing, drug delivery or enhanced oil recovery are areas of intense research activity. Microemulsions thus embrace a broad range of modern physical chemistry, biophysics and chemical engineering. The number of research groups concerned with microemulsions has increased strongly within the last two decades, which is reflected in not less than 5679 publications on microemulsions in the decade up to 1998.
