PERCOLATION BEHAVIOR IN W O EMULSIONS STABILIZED BY INTERFACIALLY ACTIVE FRACTIONS FROM CRUDE OILS IN HIGH EXTERNAL ELECTRIC-FIELDS/

In this communication we report on a percolation behavior of water in oil emulsions stabilized by indigenous surfactants from crude oils in high external electric fields, The static permittivity of the emulsion investigated increases with the applied electric field, When the elec tric field reaches a certain strength the system collapses and the per mittivity of the system resembles that of a series coupling of the wat er and the oil domains, Regression analysis of a proposed scaling law shows that the system behaves according to a static percolation model, i.e., a bicontinuous system. We compare the percolation behavior in h igh electric fields to that reported in temperature and conductivity s tudies in w/o microemulsions. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.