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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Studying Surfactant Effects on Hydrate Crystallization at Oil-Water Interfaces Using a Low-Cost Integrated Modular Peltier Device
Published on: March 18, 2020
Steric interactions in cellular structures formed in a water/oil/surfactant/cosurfactant mixture
B Molle1, A de Geyer, A Guillermo
1UMR 5819, CEA-CNRS-Université J. Fourier, Département de Recherche Fondamentale sur la Matière Condensée, 17 rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
Abstract:
Dynamics of dense microemulsion droplets forming ordered cellular phases as temperature increases are investigated by neutron spin echo spectroscopy (NSE). The shape fluctuations of droplets are shown using a specific contrast. Their relaxation time tau(f) is obtained by analysis of the NSE curves, which also reveals the short-range Brownian motion (diffusion constant D0) of the "caged" droplets. The thermal dependence of D0 and tau(f) supports the notion of entropically driven interdroplet steric repulsion stabilizing the cellular phases.
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