Influence of co-surfactant chain length on volume–induced electric percolation of n-heptane/water/AOT microemulsions

Abstract

The percolation of conductance is an important phenomenon in water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsion systems. Though percolation in microemulsions has been studied in detail, the role of co-surfactant hydrophobicity and presence of electrolytes on energetics of percolation is less understood area. The current study is related to AOT/n-heptane/water microemulsion system where n-alcohols and their binary combinations are used as co-surfactant. Percolation phenomenon is studied using conductivity measurements. Percolation threshold, scaling behavior and energetics of clustering for percolation was studied as a function of co-surfactant chain length at different temperature.