Nonmonotonic pattern of the critical percolation temperature due to variations of additive chain length in water-in-oil microemulsions

The nonmonotonic variation of the critical percolation temperature (T _c) of ternary nonionic (C₁₄E₅) water-in-oil microemulsions was studied as a function of the alkyl chain length of an ionic additive (n-alkyl sulfonate sodium salt). A thermodynamic approach shows the relationship between T _c and additive chain length, which is supplemented by a consideration of a possible molecular mechanism of the observed phenomenon. Received: 20 October 2000 Accepted: 7 November 2000