Esterification of Oleic Acid with n-Octanol in Three-Phase Microemulsions

In the presence of dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid (DBSA), a part of the phase diagram of water, oleic acid, and n-octanol was constructed as a function of the temperaure dependent from DBSA-concentration. The liquid three-phases microemulsion region in the phase diagram was efficient for the esterification of oleic acid and n-octanol. The results exhibit that the shift of phase boundary contributed to product separation and catalyst recycling.

Phase Behavior and Solubilization of Microemulsions Containing C16mimBr with Different Oil-Water Ratios

The effects of oil-water ratios (α) on the composition of the balanced interfacial layer and the optimum solubilization of microemulsions C16mimBr/butan-1-ol/oil (octane, decane, dodecane)/5% NaCl solution were investigated. As α increases, the alcohol solubility in water and oil phases (Sa) in the microemulsions also tends to increase. The reason is the relatively high solubility of the alcohol in the oil phase compared to the solubility in water. When α increases, the number of surfactant ( n s s ${\rm{n}}_{\rm{s}}^{\rm{s}}$ ) and co-surfactant ( n a s ${\rm{n}}_{\rm{a}}^{\rm{s}}$ ) molecules required to balance the interface layer and the proportion of alcohol in the interfacial layer (AS) increase but the solubilization capacity (SP*) decreases. When the total mass of water and oil is unchanged, the solubilization capacity of the microemulsion systems is lower the higher the relative content of oil is. The effects of different oils, salinity and temperature on the composition of the balanced interfacial layer and the solubilization of microemulsions were also investigated.

Study of Ionic Liquid Microemulsions: Ethylammonium Nitrate/TritonX-100/Cyclohexane

In this study, ionic liquid (IL), specifically ethylammonium nitrate (EAN), was used instead of water to form nonaqueous microemulsions with cyclohexane and the nonionic surfactant Triton X-100 (TX-100). The phase behavior of the ternary system was investigated, and the microemulsions of ionic liquid-in-oil (IL/O) and oil-in-ionic liquid (O/IL) and the bicontinuous microregion were identified through traditional electrical conductivity measurement. The micropolarities of the IL/O microemulsions were determined via UV–Vis spectroscopy with methyl orange as an absorption probe. Results indicated that the polarity of the reverse micelles remained constant but that of the IL/O microemulsions increased when IL pools were formed. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to study the interaction mechanism between TX-100 and EAN molecules in IL/O microemulsions. We demonstrated that IL/O microemulsions may be promising for application due to the unique features of ILs and microemulsions.