First Evidence of Simultaneous Different Kinetic Behaviors at the Interface and the Continuous Medium of w/o Microemulsions

Tailored surface composition of Au/Pt nanocatalysts synthesized in microemulsions: a simulation study

Au/Pt nanoparticles show an optimized catalytic activity when compared with Pt nanoparticles because Pt activity is improved by the presence of Au on the surface. It was checked whether a controllable surface composition can be achieved by the simple strategy of varying the Au : Pt ratio. We present an in-depth kinetic simulation study on the influence of Au : Pt ratio on the formation of Au/Pt nanoparticles synthesized in microemulsions. This study is able to explain the resulting nanoarrangement as a function of kinetic parameters such as Au : Pt ratio and intermicellar exchange rate. The role of the micelles as a dosing pump of the Au precursor explains that a higher Au amount results in a Au reduction which takes place over a longer period of time. It implies that Au is deposited until longer stages of the synthesis, so Au is present at the nanoparticle surface. Micelles as reaction media produce a minor impact on Pt due to its slower reduction. These different kinetic behaviours of Au and Pt give rise to a surface composition which can be tailored by tuning the Au : Pt ratio. Numerical results on surface composition successfully reproduce experimental data and further support the outcomes of the degree of atomic mixing under different Au : Pt ratios.

Pure Pt surface at low Au content and mixed surface at high Au content.

Percolation Threshold of AOT Microemulsions with n-Alkyl Acids as Additives Prediction by Means of Artificial Neural Networks

Different artificial neural networks architectures have been assayed to predict percolation temperature of AOT/iC8/H2O microemulsions in the presence of n-alkyl acids with a chain length between 0 and 24 carbons, using a multilayer perceptron with five easy-acquired entrance variables (number of carbons, log P, length of the hydrocarbon chain, pKa and acid concentration). The evaluation of the neural networks was carried out by means of RMSE and IDP, resulting that the architecture with better results consists in five input neurons, two middle layers (with five and ten neuron respectively) and one output neuron. Results prove that Artificial Neural Networks are a useful tool elaborating models to predict percolation temperature of microemulsion systems in the presence of additives.

Polarity of the interface in ionic liquid in oil microemulsions

Ionic liquid based microemulsions were characterized by absorption solvatochromic shifts, (1)H NMR and kinetic measurements in order to investigate the properties of the ionic liquid within the restricted geometry provided by microemulsions and the interactions of the ionic liquid with the interface. Experimental results show a significant difference between the interfaces of normal water and the new ionic liquid microemulsions. Absorption solvatochromic shift experiments and kinetic studies on the aminolysis of 4-nitrophenyl laurate by n-decylamine show that the polarity at the interface of the ionic liquid in oil microemulsions (IL/O) is higher than at the interface of water in oil microemulsions (W/O) despite the fact that the polarity of [bmim][BF(4)(-)] is lower than the polarity of water. (1)H NMR experiments showed that an increase in the ionic liquid content of the microemulsion led to an increase in the interaction between [bmim][BF(4)(-)] and TX-100. The reason for the higher polarity of the microemulsions with the ionic liquid can be explained in terms of the incorporation of higher levels of the ionic liquid at the interface of the microemulsions, as compared to water in the traditional systems.

Alkaline Fading of Triarylmethyl Carbocations in Self-Assembly Microheterogeneous Media

This review reports on the alkaline fading of crystal violet and other related carbocations in the presence of different microheterogeneous media (micelles, microemulsions and vesicles).

Organic Reactivity in Aot-Stabilized Microemulsions

Microemulsions are highly versatile reaction media, which currently find many applications. In this review, we shall describe recent trends in the use of microemulsions as organic reaction media, and present models for their functioning, in particular the pseudophase model. This model allows a quantitative explanation of organic reactivity in these microheterogeneous media.

Simultaneous effect of microemulsions and phase-transfer agents on aminolysis reactions

The catalytic effect of triethylene glycol dimethyl ether (glyme) on the butylaminolysis of 4-nitrophenylcaprate (NPC) in water/AOT/chlorobenzene microemulsions has been studied. Experimental results show the existence of four simultaneous reaction pathways. One of them takes place at the microemulsion interphase where the rate-determining step of butylaminolysis is the formation of the addition intermediate, T+/-. The locus of the other three pathways is the continuous medium of the microemulsion. These three pathways consist of the decomposition of the addition intermediate catalyzed by butylamine, by glyme, and by both of them. The kinetic model allows us to obtain the value of every rate and distribution constant involved in the overall reaction mechanism. We must emphasize that the reactions located in the continuous medium exhibit a kinetic behavior similar to the corresponding one found in pure chlorobenzene. On the basis of the pseudophase model, the percentage of reaction in each of the microdomains of the microemulsion has been calculated. Likewise, changes in the loci of reaction from the interphase to the continuous medium as a function of catalyst concentration have been proved.

Chlorination of aromatic compounds in micellar media: regioselectivity

Chlorination of phenol and ortho-chlorophenol was studied in micellar media in order to observe the effect on regioselectivity. Hydrogen peroxide/hydrochloric acid-aqueous system, which is environmentally a safer route was employed for chlorination. Selectivity ratio was found to be dependent on the nature and concentration of the surfactant. Ortho/para selectivity ratio up to 12 was realized for the chlorination of phenol. 2,6-/2,4-dichlorophenol ratio up to 1.01 was realized for the chlorination of ortho-chlorophenol.