ON THE APPLICATION OF POLYMER RENORMALIZATION-GROUP THEORY TO POLYMER-LIKE MICROEMULSIONS

We report on the application of results from conformation space renorm alization group theory for semi-dilute polymer solutions to << equilib rium polymers >> such as worm-like micelles or microemulsions. We have tested this approach with data from an extensive static light scatter ing study of lecithin water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsions. We demonstrat e that one can construct a universal curve (M(w)/RT)(partial derivativ e PI/partial derivative c) versus a reduced concentration X approximat ely c/c, where c* is the overlap concentration, from the experimental ly determined values of the osmotic compressibility if a power law of the form M(w) approximately c(alpha) for the c-dependence of the avera ge particle size is assumed. We show that one can thus obtain informat ion from static light scattering experiments on the concentration depe ndence of both the micellar size distribution and the intermicellar in teraction effects, i.e., on the weight average molecular weight M(w)(c ) and the static structure factor S(0, c).