Figure 1.
Phase diagram of the multi-component U-type water-diluted microemulsion system at 25°C.
D82 denotes a dilution line at a surfactant/oil phase ratio = 80/20.
Table 1.
Melting temperatures of the microemulsion components.
Table 2.
Thermal behavior of microemulsions along dilution line D82 at different water concentrations measured by DSC.
Figure 2.
DSC curves of microemulsions containing Tween 20 as the surfactant phase, and GML and ethanol at a 1∶1 weight ratio as the oil phase, along dilution line D82: (a) 0–33%, (b) 35–39%, and (c) 41–90% water.
Figure 3.
Variation in the content of non-freezable (×), bound (□), interphasal (○) and free water (Δ) as a function of water concentration along dilution line D82.
Figure 4.
Particle size distributions of the microemulsions along dilution line D82 with various water contents: (a) 9%; (b) 38%; (c) 46%, in correspondence to the FF-TEM observations of (a) w/o, (b) bicontinous, and (c) o/w microstructures.
Figure 5.
Time exposure viability curves for cultures of approximately 109 cfu/ml E. coli (a) and 108 cfu/ml S. aureus (b) at 1% (v/v) addition to microemulsions with various water contents at 25°C for 24 h.
Error bars are calculated from standard error of the dataset (n = 2).
Figure 6.
Plot of the calculated killing behavior over a period of 24
Region I denotes the w/o microemulsions (<33% water). Region II denotes the bicontinous microemulsions with 35–39% water. Region III denotes the o/w microemulsions (>39% water).