PREPARATION OF NANOPARTICLES IN MICROEMULSIONS - A MONTE-CARLO STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE SYNTHESIS VARIABLES

Monte Carlo simulations were performed to study the formation of nanop articles in microemulsions. The influence of the following parameters on particle size distribution (PSD) was investigated: number of reagen t molecules per droplet, surfactant film flexibility, droplet size, pr esence or absence of autocatalysis by the product, and the fraction of bulk volume made up by droplets. It was found that autocatalyzed reac tions with high reagent concentrations and low surfactant film flexibi lity afforded bimodal PSDs. Particle size increased with reagent conce ntration when this was low, but at higher reagent concentrations it de pended chiefly on droplet size. The dependence of PSD on reaction time confirmed the successive occurrence of well-defined nucleation and gr owth processes. We have compared the simulation results with experimen tal data taken from different authors and carried out in our laborator y. Good agreement between both kind of results supports the conclusion s of this paper.