Making polyurethane foams from microemulsions

A remarkable correlation exists between the degree of expansion of polyurethane foams and the structure of the reacting premixes. Polyurethane foams obtained from reacting premixes containing microemulsions are highly expanded. The expansion rate is proportional to the volume fraction of microemulsion in the premix. The stability of premixes with and without microemulsion is completely different suggesting distinct creaming mechanisms. We apply this idea to synthesize polyurethane foams from microemulsions successfully. This approach can be used to rationalize the design of polyurethane formulations leading to highly expanded foams.     

Cation Effect on the Binary and Ternary Phase Behaviors of Double-Tailed Methanesulfonate Amphiphiles

A series of symmetrical dialkyl methanesulfonate amphiphiles [DiC _n CHSO ₃ ] _m M (n = 6, 7, 8) with different counter cations (M^m+ = H⁺, Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Sc³⁺) were synthesized in five steps. Their solubility and critical micelle concentration (CMC) in water were determined highlighting a huge effect of the chain length and the nature of the cation. The hydrophilic–lipophilic balance of the surfactants were assessed with the phase inversion temperature (PIT)-slope method based on the deviation from the PIT of the reference C₁₀E₄/n-octane/0.01 M NaCl_(aq) emulsion through addition of increasing amounts of the dialkyl methanesulfonates. The hydrophilicity of the surfactants was thus ranked in terms of dPIT/dx_sulfonate. A “cation” scan with the [DiC ₆ CHSO ₃ ] _m M /benzene/water systems at f_w = 0.5 was finally performed confirming the hydrophilicity ranking obtained with the PIT-slope method. It revealed that the [DiC ₆ CHSO ₃ ] ₂ Mg behaves as a “Balanced Surfactant” able to form spontaneously a three-phase microemulsion system (Winsor III) just in the presence of water and oil, in the same way as the catalytic surfactant dimethyldioctylammonium molybdate, which has the same PIT-slope.     

苯乙烯/丙烯酸丁酯微乳液共聚物链段分布的研究

以苯乙烯/丙烯酸丁酯(St/BA)为共聚单体,进行了微乳液聚合反应,测定了共聚物组成和共聚单体的竞聚率。由竞聚率计算了共聚物分子的链段分布,分析了共聚物分子的微观结构。     

微乳液法制备纳米材料的研究进展

微乳液法制备纳米材料可以控制纳米粒子的大小和形状。本文综述了影响纳米粒子的主要因素和微乳液法制备纳米材料的最新研究进展。     

Nanoscale ZnS/TiO2 composites: Preparation, characterization, and visible-light photocatalytic activity

Photoactive ZnS/TiO₂ nanocomposites were prepared via microemulsion-mediated solvothermal method. The structure, composition, physicochemical property, and morphology of the composites were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman scattering studies, UV diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV/DRS), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It showed that the composites were cube-shaped with particle sizes of 10 to 15 nm, and the phase structure for ZnS and TiO₂ in the composites was cubic and anatase, respectively. The content of the ZnS in the composites was 2.1%, 10.7%, and 19.9%, respectively. Compared with the solitary anatase TiO₂, the ZnS/TiO₂ exhibited enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity for the aqueous parathion-methyl degradation. Factors including the interactions between the phases of ZnS and TiO₂, strong adsorption of the substrate at the surface of the ZnS/TiO₂ nanocomposites, and preassociation of the substrate and composites are responsible for this enhancement photocatalytic activity.     

Formation and Phase Behavior of Winsor Type III <Emphasis Type="Italic">Jatropha curcas</Emphasis>-Based Microemulsion Systems

The formation and phase behavior of Jatropha curcas-based microemulsion systems, which could potentially be used in enhanced oil recovery applications, has been investigated. Winsor type III microemulsions were obtained by adding n-octane to Winsor type I microemulsion systems prepared using various concentrations of alkyl polyglucoside (APG). To optimize the formulation of type III microemulsion systems, five different types of co-surfactants, i.e. normal butyl alcohol (NBA), isobutyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, fatty acid alcohol C8 (FAC8) and fatty acid alcohol C8/C10 (FAC8/C10) were used. The microemulsion phase behavior was determined along with particle size distributions by dynamic light scattering measurements. Results show that the optimum Winston type III system can be achieved by mixing 3 wt% of NBA, 1 wt% APG and 3 wt% NaCl. At the optimum formulation, the IFT reached a minimum value (0.016 mN/m) and formed very small emulsion droplets with a narrow particle size distribution.     

Partition of <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-Butanol Among Phases and Solubilization Ability of Winsor type III Microemulsions

The partition of n-butanol in Winsor type III (W-III) microemulsions was investigated in this work. Three kinds of anionic surfactants (sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), sodium dodecyl sulfonate (DSS), and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS)) and two kinds of anionic/cationic surfactant mixtures (SDS/octadecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (OTAC) mixtures and DSS/OTAC mixtures) were studied. Internal standard gas chromatography was employed in n-butanol content analysis. The results showed that no water exists in the excess oil (EO) phase and no oil exists in the excess water (EW) phase. For the W-III microemulsions obtained by salinity scanning, relatively constant n-butanol content in the EO (11–12 v%) and EW (1–4 v%) was found under different salinities. Accurate measurement of n-butanol content in each phase is important for those systems having low solubilization ability. For the W-III microemulsions prepared using SDS/OTAC surfactant mixture, the percentage of n-butanol distributed into the interfacial layer decreased while the fraction of n-butanol in the interfacial layer first increased sharply and then tended to be stable with the addition of n-butanol. For the different optimum W-III microemulsion systems tested, most of the surfactant-to-alcohol molar ratio data are near 1:3, but obvious deviation could be observed for some data. On the basis of the accurate measurement of n-butanol content in the EO and EW phases, the standard free energy, ΔG _o→in ^* (T = 298.15 K) of n-butanol transferring from the EO phase to the interfacial region was calculated. The results show negative ΔG _o→in ^* values. For microemulsions with the same components, n-butanol content is an important factor influencing the ΔG _o→in ^* value, and a high absolute value of ΔG _o→in ^* leads to high solubilization ability.     

萃取体系反向胶束和W／O微乳液的形成

本文评述了国内外学者在萃取体系反向胶束和微乳液领域的研究成果。探讨了胺类萃取和协同萃取体系中反向胶束的形成对萃取分配比的影响，以及某些萃取体系第三相与ＷｉｎｓｏｒⅢ微乳液的关系，并从形成反向胶束或微乳液的角度对萃取规律作了概括。     

Nanosized bismuth ferrite powder prepared through sonochemical and microemulsion techniques

Two processing routes, namely sonochemical and microemulsion have been exploited to prepare bismuth ferrite powders. Phase pure nanosized BiFeO₃ powders are prepared by sonochemical and microemulsion techniques in the temperature range of 400 °C and at 500 °C which is much lower than that of the conventional preparation methods. The XRD obtained from both cases was likely to be pure bismuth ferrite. Though the microemulsion based powders showed slightly better properties with respect to particle size, surface area, and final density, sonochemically prepared powders may be more acceptable considering the ease of preparation and cost effectiveness.     

Preparation method for supported metal catalysts using w/o microemulsion: Study on immobilization conditions of metal particles by hydrolysis of alkoxide

It was previously found that the silica-supported rhodium catalyst prepared using water-in-oil microemulsion had rhodium particles partly, or wholly, embedded in silica. In this work, consequently, we investigated the effect of hydrolysis conditions of tetraethylorthosilicate, employed as the source of silica, on the atomic ratio of surface rhodium in contact with the gas phase, to total surface rhodium of nanoparticles. This ratio is denoted as R in this paper. R became higher when the catalyst was prepared under the following hydrolysis conditions: a shorter hydrolysis time and a smaller amount of tetraethylorthosilicate. On the other hand, R showed the minimum value when the water content in the preparation solution was 33 vol%. From these results, it is demonstrated that it was important to form silica as early as possible in hydrolysis of TEOS in order to increase R values. In addition, the effect of R on the catalytic behavior in CO hydrogenation was investigated. At R values below 30%, the turnover frequencies increased with a decrease in R.