U.S.-Mexico Collaborative Study of Microemulsions

该奖项将支持华盛顿大学的埃里克·卡勒教授与墨西哥瓜达拉哈拉大学的豪尔赫·普伊格教授合作。研究人员计划使用散射技术、瞬时和稳态荧光光谱、脉冲场梯度核磁共振和电导率来研究微乳液的结构和动力学。在之前资助的工作的基础上，研究人员将研究由三种、四种和五种成分形成的微乳液，重点是从液晶相到微乳液相的转变。微乳液是热力学稳定的同位素微结构流体相，含有大量的油和水、表面活性剂，通常还含有酒精。微乳液因其独特的物理化学性质以及在清净、提高采收率、相转移催化、光化学和聚合反应等大规模商业应用方面的潜力，已成为一个越来越重要的研究领域。然而，尽管它们的发现已经过去了40多年，但人们对它们的微观结构和这些结构中的变化仍然没有很好的了解。研究人员系统地结合了几种实验方法，其中一些将在华盛顿进行，另一些将在瓜达拉哈拉进行，研究人员希望对微乳的结构有更准确的理解。对这些结构的了解将有助于更好地设计基于微乳液的工艺，并为应用提供更有效的适当微乳液配方。

This award will support Professor Eric Kaler of the University of Washington in collaborative work with Professor Jorge Puig of the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. The investigators plan to investigate the structure and dynamics of microemulsions, using scattering techniques, transient and steady state fluorescence spectroscopy, pulsed field gradient nmr, and conductivity. Building on previously funded work, the researchers will investigate microemulsions formed with three, four, and five components, focusing on the transition from liquid-crystalline to microemulsion phases. Microemulsions are thermodynamically stable, isotopic microstructured fluid phases containing substantial amounts of oil and water, surfactant, and, frequently, alcohol. Because of their unusual physico-chemical properties and their potential for large-scale applications of commercial importance, such as detergency, enhanced oil recovery, phase-transfer catalysis, and photochemical and polymerization reactions, microemulsions have become increasingly important as a research area. Yet, although more than four decades have elapsed since their discovery, their microstructure and changes in these structures are still not well understood. Using a systematic combination of several experimental methods, some to be carried out in Washington, others in Guadalajara, the investigators hope to arrive at a more acurate understanding of microemulsion structure. Knowledge of these structures will allow better designs of microemulsion based processes and more effective formulations of appropriate microemulsions for applications.