Studies on the phase behavior of the system non-ionic surfactant/alcohol/alkane/H2O

Microemulsions with 1-butanol, 1-pentanol and 1-hexanol as cosurfactants, Triton X-100, -114, -405 or mixtures of non-ionic surfactants as surfactants and, n-hexane, n-heptane, n-octane and n-decane as oils were investigated. The effects of polyoxyethylene chain length, chain length of the oil, surfactant to cosurfactant ratio, mixing of surfactants, type of cosurfactant and concentration of salt have been studied. Maximization of solubilization of oil and water was achieved for whole systems at low concentration of surfactants. Optimum surfactant/cosurfactant ratio was determined as 1/0.5. In addition, it was found that surfactant/cosurfactant ratio, type of oil and polyoxyethylene chain length of surfactant had changed the dispersion ratio.