Investigation on conductivity of mixed surfactants reverse microemulsion

Abstract

P-octyl polyethylene glycol phenyl ether (Triton X-100) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) were mixed to be used as surfactant for preparing reverse microemulsion with n-hexane, n-hexanol and water. Effects of weight ratio of the two surfactants, temperature, concentrations of water and cosurfactant on the conductivity were studied. The results indicate that the conductivity of the mixed surfactants reverse microemulsion is greatly higher than that of the single surfactant system. The reverse microemulsion has been modified to be with good conductivity. The weight ratio of the two surfactants, temperature, concentrations of water and cosurfactant have obvious effects on the conductivity of the reverse microemulsion. Furthermore, the electrochemical behavior of potassium ferricyanide [K3Fe(CN)6] in the mixed surfactants reverse microemulsion was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. The result shows that the redox processes of \( {{\text{Fe}}\left( {\text{CN}} \right)_{ 6}}^{ 3- } / {{\text{Fe}}\left( {\text{CN}} \right)_{ 6}}^{ 4-} \) present good reversibility and are controlled by diffusion in the system.