I want to know that why the morphology changes by changing the microemulsion compositions (amount of surfactant, oil phase and aqueous phase) in reverse microemulsion (reverse micelle) route??
I synthesized NiCoFe2O4 NPs by reverse microemulsion method using CTAB/ hexanol/ water system. As I mentioned above, by changing the amount of CTAB, hexanol and water (according to ternary phase diagram of them), the morphology changed from spherical to rod. What is the reason??
Hello!
In inverse micro emulsion systems, the most common morphology for the micelles is the globular. However, as you observed in your experiments, by changing the micro emulsion composition, other configurations are possible.This is probably related to th HLB of the surfactant used and also the characteristic of the water-soluble componentes, that may act as co-surfactant.
As example, the micro emulsion can present a bicontinuous structure. In this case, the aqueous and oily domains are arbitrarily linked, the surfactants usually present HLB > 6, and the water-soluble components also acts as co-surfactant. Therefore, you can also expect other morphologies as you change from globular to bicontinuous structures.
You can read more about these in these references:
**Macromol. React. Eng. 2017, DOI: 10.1002/mren.201600066
**Polymer 42, (2001) 8499-8510
@ Marco Oliveira
dear dr. Oliveira,
Hello!
Thank you for your helpful answer. Would you please explain more about HLB?? Is it a constant parameter for each surfactant??
The HLB stands for "hydrophilic-lipophilic balance". You can look it up for more definition. In short, yes, it is a constant for each surfactant; it is usually range from 0-20, where 0 = full hydrophobic and 20 = full hydrophilic.
@ Marco Oliveira
Well, how this parameter can affect on changing of morphology?? would you please explain more about that??
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