Determination of the Water/AOT/Isooctane Reverse Micelles Size Parameters from Their Refractive Index Data

The present paper aims to study the proprieties of water confined in water/AOT/isooctane reverse micelles from their refractive indices at 298.5 K. The refractive indices of the microemulsions were investigated at increasing water concentration and at different micellar volume fractions, Φ _d. The refractive index of micellar water was deduced for a large water to AOT molar ratio, W ₀. The refractive index of interfacial water was also calculated. Then, the molar faction of interfacial water, α, was deduced for different W ₀ values and compared with those measured by NMR as reported in the literature. The results show qualitative agreement. Finally, the average aggregation number, n _agg, the area per surfactant headgroup, σ, as well as the interfacial thickness, d _i, of the reverse micelles were determined for the W ₀ values studied. The values of these structural parameters also show good qualitative agreement with NMR and small angle X-ray scattering data reported in the literature. Thus, the refractive index method can be a cheap and fast alternative for these two methods.