STATISTICAL-MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF DENSE EMULSIONS AND MICROEMULSIONS

The impact of droplet deformability on the macroscopic properties of e mulsions and microemulsions is studied. The deformation energy at the pair level is utilized in the Percus-Yevick closure for solving the Or nstein-Zernike equation. Thus the radial distribution functions and st ructure factors for deformable droplets are calculated and compared wi th the respective hard sphere results to reveal the effect of the defo rmation. The variation of the osmotic pressure with the droplet volume fraction for the same systems is obtained by the Percus-Yevick integr al equation method. It is shown that the droplet deformability may lea d to a considerable reduction of the osmotic pressure of emulsions and microemulsions. A semiempirical equation of state based on modifying the Carnahan-Starling expression is suggested and compared to the Perc us-Yevick results.