MICROEMULSIONS – AN INTRODUCTION TO PROPERTIES AND APPLICATIONS Edited by Reza Najjar Microemulsions – An Introduction to Properties and Applications Edited by Reza Najjar Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Ivona Lovric Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer InTech Design Team First published March, 2012 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechweb.org Microemulsions – An Introduction to Properties and Applications, Edited by Reza Najjar p. cm. ISBN 978-953-51-0247-2 Contents Preface IX Part 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Microemulsions – A Brief Introduction 1 Reza Najjar Part 2 Microstructures: Experimental and Modeling Studies 31 Chapter 2 Ultrasonic Characterisation of W/O Microemulsions – Structure, Phase Diagrams, State of Water in Nano–Droplets, Encapsulated Proteins, Enzymes 33 Vitaly Buckin and Shailesh Kumar Hallone Chapter 3 Influence of Linear Aliphatic Alcohols upon the Electric Percolation of AOT-Based Microemulsions 67 A. Cid, J.A. Manso, J.C. Mejuto and O.A. Moldes Chapter 4 Predictive Modeling of Microemulsion Phase Behaviour and Microstructure Characterisation in the 1-Phase Region 83 Deeleep K. Rout, Richa Goyal, Ritesh Sinha, Arun Nagarajan and Pintu Paul Part 3 Applications in Drug Delivery and Vaccines 113 Chapter 5 Nonionic Model Microemulsions to Study Interactions with Active Components and Antioxidant Activity 115 Joakim Balogh, Luís Marques and António Lopes Chapter 6 Thermal Reversible Microemulsion for Oral Delivery of Poorly Water-Soluble Drugs 135 Zhong-Gao Gao Chapter 7 The Mucosal Immune System: Modulation by Microemulsion 151 Eduardo Luzia França and Adenilda Cristina Honorio-França VI Contents Part 4 Applications in Oil Industry and Preparation of Nanostructured Materials 159 Chapter 8 The Use of Microemusion Systems in Oil Industry 161 Vanessa Cristina Santanna, Tereza Neuma de Castro Dantas and Afonso Avelino Dantas Neto Chapter 9 Mesostructured Polymer Materials Based on Bicontinuous Microemulsions 175 Masashi Kunitake, Kouhei Sakata and Taisei Nishimi Chapter 10 Microemulsion Method for Synthesis of Magnetic Oxide Nanoparticles 191 A. Drmota, M. Drofenik, J. Koselj and A. Žnidaršič Chapter 11 Synthesis of Nanocatalysts via Reverse Microemulsion Route for Fischer-Tropsch Reactions 215 N.A. Mohd Zabidi Chapter 12 Nanoparticles Preparation Using Microemulsion Systems 229 Anna Zielińska-Jurek, Joanna Reszczyńska, Ewelina Grabowska and Adriana Zaleska Preface Microemulsions are thermodynamically stable mixtures composed of at least three components, namely, oil, water and surfactant, and sometimes a fourth component called as co-surfactant essentially comes into play. This field is one of the still rapidly growing fields of science and technology that have attracted a great attention of the scientists with various professions, ranging from pure physical chemists to oil engineers, pharmacologists and biologists. Besides many researchers investigating the structural and pure scientific aspects of these systems by different tools and techniques, there are a lot of others benefiting them as a powerful and vital tool to achieve own aims. Regarding these facts, the investigation and work either on the scientific or application aspects of microemulsions still is a high priority research theme. This book was intended to provide an insight into the fundamentals and some applications of microemulsion systems. In the first Chapter, a very short introduction about the background and general aspects of microemulsions is given. The author has tried to introduce different types of related fields and provide some reviews and original references to enter the reader into the play. The second Part of the book was assigned for investigating the influence of some determining parameters on the microstructure and phase behavior of these systems. In Chapter 2 of the book, Dr Buckin one of the prominent experts in this special field has provided a new aspects in investigation of microemulsion characteristics, such as size, microstructure and state of water in nano-droplets and … with high-resolution ultrasonic measurements. The third Chapter of the book by Dr Cid and co-authors deals with the effect of changing the size and type of co-surfactants on the electric percolation and percolation temperature of the system. In Chapter 4, Dr Rout and co-authors have discussed on another aspect of the microemulsion science, and used one of the well known theoretical models already proposed for the description of the microemulsions, to predict phase behavior and microstructure of a system in 1-phase region. In Part 3 and Part 4 of the book different type of applications of the microemulsions have been explained. Among the applications of microemulsions, their use in drug delivery systems and vaccines have gained a great interest during the last decade. One of the challenges in this field is to develop some common “ready to use” drug delivery systems where one only needs to add an active component to formulation. Dr Balogh in Chapter 5 has presented if it is really as simple as to add any active component and X Preface use them or further work will be required with these formulations. The next Chapter deals with the work on a thermal reversible system for delivering of poorly water- soluble drugs by oral administration. Dr Gao has discussed on the different parameters affecting the oral delivery of the lypophilic drugs by the mentioned system. In the Chapter 7, the improvement of the vaccination methods using microemulsions has been demonstrated. Dr França and co-author have explained the beneficial effect of using nanoparticles for vaccine delivery via microemulsions resulting in good immune responses. The last Part of the book is devoted to their use in oil industry as an old and important application, as well as the other main type of microemulsion applications, namely, use of them in preparation of the nanostructured materials, which has become very popular during last decade. Dr Santanna and co-authors have described how several microemulsion systems which may be used in different areas of the oil industry, such as wells hydraulic fracturing, corrosion inhibitors in pipelines, in the breakdown of water/oil emulsions, in enhanced oil recovery, and as alternative fuel. In Chapter 9, Dr Kunitake and co-authors have introduced use of microemulsions with bicontinuous microstructures as a template for preparation of the continuous porous polymeric materials and bicontinuous hybrid materials by polymerization or gelation. In Chapter 10, another type of microemulsion applications, i.e., use of microemulsions with water in oil droplets as nanoreactors for the preparation of the nanostructured materials is investigated. Dr Dromta and co-authors have discussed on the preparation of the magnetic core-shell nanoparticles with a narrow particle size distribution. As described in Chapter 11 by Dr Mohd Zabidi, use of microemulsion technique was able to produce Co-based nanocatalysts with a good selectivity in Fischer-Tropsch reactions. The use of microemulsion systems in preparation of the photocatalysts is one of the other widely used applications. In the Chapter 12 Dr Zielińska-Jurek and co- authors have reviewed this field and discussed about the different factors affecting the properties of prepared photocatalysts. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Mrs Ivona Lovric, the publishing process manager and Intech Open Access publisher for their efforts in the publishing process. Many thanks also to my family and families of all other collaborators for their patience and acceptance of the lost evenings. I wish that this book can give an insight into the field. With the best wishes Marvdizaj, 2012 Dr Reza Najjar Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran . MICROEMULSIONS – AN INTRODUCTION TO PROPERTIES AND APPLICATIONS Edited by Reza Najjar Microemulsions – An Introduction to Properties and Applications Edited. proper compositions is an important issue in this field to obtain the microemulsions with required Microemulsions – An Introduction to Properties and Applications 4 properties. For this. Arun Nagarajan and Pintu Paul Part 3 Applications in Drug Delivery and Vaccines 113 Chapter 5 Nonionic Model Microemulsions to Study Interactions with Active Components and Antioxidant Activity