Small angle neutron scattering study on a phase separation in a 3-component microemulsion system

In literature, the 3-component microemulsion system consisting of AOT, water and n-decane is known to belong to 3D-Ising universality class so far. Recently, we have found that the critical exponent of the susceptibility is the meanfield value at near-critical region, and at the same time we have observed a small change of the water droplet size approaching a phase separation point.

In this work, further small angle neutron scattering results are presented obtained at the new SANS equipment in JAERI. The evidences described above were confirmed and a detailed phase diagram has been obtained, but the critical point was not found. These results seem to suggest that the change of the droplet structure on approaching the critical point affects the critical point itself.