MICROEMULSIFYING FLUORINATED OILS WITH MIXTURES OF FLUORINATED AND HYDROGENATED SURFACTANTS

Microemulsions containing fluorinated oils are, in general, prepared b y mixing water, the perfluorinated oil, and a fluorinated surfactant w hich may be either ionic or non-ionic. In this paper we describe our s tudy of the phase behavior of three different fluorinated oils in mixt ures with water and n-fluoroalkyl polyglycol ether. Furthermore, our e xperiments show that replacing fluorinated surfactants by mixtures of fluorinated and hydrogenated surfactants (up to a 25% weight ratio of hydrogenated to fluorinated surfactant) leads to microemulsion formati on with a variety of fluorinated oils. The ratio of the two types of s urfactant and the chain length of the added hydrogenated surfactant ar e ideal parameters with which either to increase the efficiency of the amphiphile blend or to control the temperature of microemulsion forma tion. The experimental results point to general rules governing the ph ase behavior of microemulsions of fluorinated oils and mixtures of hyd rogenated and fluorinated surfactants.