Phase Behavior of the APG/Alcohol/Alkane/H2O System.

In this paper, the concentration scanning phase diagram and the fishlike phase diagrams for the quaternary system of alkyl polyglucoside (APG: C8G1.46 or C8/10G1.31)/alcohol/alkane/water mixtures have been studied. By a mass-balance the mass fractions of APG and alcohol at the interface in the microemulsion (CS and CA) were obtained.The mixing fraction of alcohol at the interface (AS) was also determined by the HLB plane equation based on the geometrical relation of the three-phase tie triangle in the composition tetrahedron. The net solubilizing power γE is larger for C8/10G1.31 than that for the C8G1.46 microemulsion system. The effect of alcohol on the three-phase behavior and maximum solubilization was also investigated, which shows that alcohols with short chains have high solubilizing power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]