Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 113, Issue 16, Pages 4260-4265Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1515708113
Keywords
microemulsions; aggregation; micelles; hydrotrope; hydration force
Categories
Funding
- European Research Council [320915]
- Laboratory Chemisyst ANR [11-01-05]
- CNRS within Institut National de Chimie (INC)
- COST Action [CM1101]
- European Research Council (ERC) [320915] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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Ternary solutions containing one hydrotrope (such as ethanol) and two immiscible fluids, both being soluble in the hydrotrope at any proportion, show unexpected solubilization power and allow strange but yet unexplained membrane enzyme activity. We study the system ethanol-water-octanol as a simple model of such kinds of ternary solutions. The stability of detergentless micelles or microemulsions in such mixtures was proposed in the pioneering works of Barden and coworkers [Smith GD, Donelan CE, Barden RE (1977) J Colloid Interface Sci 60(3): 488-496 and Keiser BA, Varie D, Barden RE, Holt SL (1979) J Phys Chem 83(10): 1276-1281] in the 1970s and then, neglected, because no general explanation for the observations was available. Recent direct microstructural evidence by light, X-ray, and neutron scattering using contrast variation reopened the debate. We propose here a general principle for solubilization without conventional surfactants: the balance between hydration force and entropy. This balance explains the stability of microemulsions in homogeneous ternary mixtures based on cosolvents.
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