Copolymer-induced stabilizing effect of highly swollen hexagonal mesophases

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that small amounts of copolymer can significantly stabilize swollen surfactant hexagonal phases, enabling control over their structural parameters for potential applications in mesoporous material synthesis.

Contribution

It provides quantitative evidence of copolymer's stabilizing effect on oil/water hexagonal phases and explores their tunable structural properties.

Findings

Copolymer decoration enhances phase stability.

Structural parameters can be independently controlled.

Potential for mesoporous material synthesis.

Abstract

We show quantitatively that tiny amounts of copolymer that decorate a oil/water interfaces can greatly enhance the stability of swollen surfactant hexagonal phases, comprising oil tubes regularly arranged in a water matrix. Such soft composite materials, whose both radius of the tubes and water channel between the tubes can be controlled independently over large ranges, offer a potential interest for the synthesis of mesoporous materials.