POLYDISPERSITY OF AOT DROPLETS MEASURED BY TIME-RESOLVED FLUORESCENCEQUENCHING

The size and polydispersity of AOT water/oil microemulsions were measu red by time-resolved fluorescence quenching. From the measured volume polydispersity the radius polydispersity was derived and calculated. A n average polydispersity of 15.7% was obtained. No trends in polydispe rsity values at different droplet sizes or different solvent chain len gths were observed. The polydispersity values obtained are compared wi th values obtained by a new approach to theoretically estimate the pol ydispersity, and approximate values for the interfacial tension, gamma (infinity), of the planar oil/water interface and the interfacial bend ing constant, K, were computed.