Eur. Phys. J. E 5, 377-386

Insertion of small anisotropic clay particles in swollen lamellar or sponge phases of nonionic surfactant

I. Grillo¹, P. Levitz² and Th. Zemb<sup>3

1</sup>  ILL, DS/LSS, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, B.P. 156, 38052 Grenoble Cédex 9, France
²  CNRS, CRMD, 1bis rue de la Ferollerie, 45071 Orléans Cédex 2, France
³  CEN Saclay, DRECAM/SCM, 91191 Gif/Yvette Cédex, France

grillo@ill.fr

(Received 11 December 2000 and Received in final form 11 April 2001)

Abstract
we have established experimentally the region of existence of smectic and sponge lyotropic microstructures in the presence of synthetic hydrophilic clay particles. Taking into account the adsorption isotherm, we determined the extension of the single-phase regions by visual inspection and looking at low-q behaviour of the small-angle neutron scattering. Conditions of stability such as geometric constraints associated with fluctuation quenching are discussed.

PACS
61.10.Eq - X-ray scattering (including small-angle scattering).
61.30.Eb - Experimental determinations of smectic, nematic, cholesteric, and other structures.


© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2001