Ginzburg-Landau theory of ternary amphiphilic systems. II. Monte Carlo simulations.

We study interfacial fluctuations in a Ginzburg-Landau model for ternary oil-water-surfactant mixtures by Monte Carlo simulations. Space has to be discretized in order to apply the Monte Carlo method. However, by an appropriate choice of the lattice constant of the background lattice, discretization effects can be largely avoided. Strong fluctuation effects on the phase diagram are observed, which can be explained by a fluctuation-induced lowering of the oil-water interfacial tension. We determine several quantities, which characterize the structure of the microemulsion, such as the internal interfacial area and the Euler characteristic. The microemulsion phase is shown to have a disordered bicontinuous structure

[1]  W. Helfrich.  Elastic Properties of Lipid Bilayers: Theory and Possible Experiments , 1973, Zeitschrift fur Naturforschung. Teil C: Biochemie, Biophysik, Biologie, Virologie.

[2]  L. Peliti,et al.  Effects of thermal fluctuations on systems with small surface tension. , 1985, Physical review letters.

[3]  Fisher,et al.  Is short-range "critical" wetting a first-order transition? , 1992, Physical review letters.

[4]  G. Gompper,et al.  Elastic Properties of Interfaces in a Ginzburg-Landau Theory of Swollen Micelles, Droplet Crystals and Lamellar Phases , 1991 .

[5]  Peter A. J. Hilbers,et al.  Structure of a water/oil interface in the presence of micelles: A computer simulation study , 1991 .

[6]  Smith,et al.  Steric interactions in a model multimembrane system: A synchrotron x-ray study. , 1986, Physical review letters.

[7]  P. Bassereau,et al.  Excess Area in Fluctuating-Membrane Systems , 1992 .

[8]  Chen,et al.  Microemulsions: A Landau-Ginzburg theory. , 1990, Physical review letters.

[9]  C. Safinya,et al.  A synchrotron X-ray study of competing undulation and electrostatic interlayer interactions in fluid multimembrane lyotropic phases , 1988 .

[10]  G. Gompper,et al.  Interfacial properties of amphiphilic systems : the approach to lifshitz points , 1991 .

[11]  R. Larson.  Self‐assembly of surfactant liquid crystalline phases by Monte Carlo simulation , 1989 .

[12]  W. Jahn,et al.  Microstructure of microemulsions by freeze fracture electron microscopy , 1988 .

[13]  L. Scriven,et al.  Equilibrium bicontinuous structure , 1976, Nature.

[14]  Peyrelasse,et al.  Percolation transition in microemulsions: Effect of water-surfactant ratio, temperature, and salinity. , 1987, Physical review. A, General physics.

[15]  F. Brochard,et al.  Frequency spectrum of the flicker phenomenon in erythrocytes , 1975 .

[16]  Schick,et al.  Lattice model of microemulsions: The effect of fluctuations in one and two dimensions. , 1990, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[17]  B. Lindman,et al.  Droplet and bicontinuous structures in microemulsions from multicomponent self-diffusion measurements , 1985 .

[18]  Schick,et al.  Correlation between structural and interfacial properties of amphiphilic systems. , 1990, Physical review letters.

[19]  G. Gompper,et al.  Ginzburg-Landau theory of oil-water-surfactant mixtures. , 1992, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[20]  W. Helfrich.  Effect of thermal undulations on the rigidity of fluid membranes and interfaces , 1985 .

[21]  M. Teubner,et al.  Origin of the scattering peak in microemulsions , 1987 .

[22]  G. Gompper,et al.  Steric Interactions in Multimembrane Systems: A Monte Carlo Study , 1989 .

[23]  P. G. de Gennes,et al.  Microemulsions and the flexibility of oil/water interfaces , 1982 .

[24]  Michael E. Fisher,et al.  Finite-size effects in fluid interfaces , 1990 .

[25]  Dawson,et al.  Renormalization of a Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson theory of microemulsion. , 1992, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[26]  B. Widom.  Correlation and scattering functions in a lattice model of oil–water–amphiphile solutions , 1989 .

[27]  S. H. A. Chen,et al.  Structural evolution within the one-phase region of a three-component microemulsion system: Water-n-decane-sodium-bis-ethylhexylsulfosuccinate (AOT) , 1990 .

[28]  U. Olsson,et al.  Dilute lamellar and L3 phases in the binary water–C12E5 system , 1990 .

[29]  S. Leibler,et al.  Unbinding transitions of interacting membranes. , 1986, Physical review letters.

[30]  G. Gompper,et al.  A Polymerized Membrane in Confined Geometry , 1991 .

[31]  D. Stauffer,et al.  Monte Carlo simulations of spin-1/2 micelle and microemulsion models , 1988 .

[32]  Kyozi Kawasaki,et al.  Hybrid models for the dynamics of an immiscible binary mixture with surfactant molecules , 1990 .

[33]  Ronald G. Larson,et al.  Monte Carlo simulation of microstructural transitions in surfactant systems , 1992 .

[34]  K. Esselink,et al.  Computer simulations of a water/oil interface in the presence of micelles , 1990, Nature.

[35]  Gompper,et al.  Ginzburg-Landau theory of ternary amphiphilic systems. I. Gaussian interface fluctuations. , 1993, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics.

[36]  K. Dawson,et al.  Accounting for fluctuations in a lattice model of microemulsions , 1990 .