Carbon dioxide-in-water microemulsions

Liquid and supercritical carbon dioxide swell potassium carboxylate perfluoropolyether (PFPE-K) cylindrical micelles in water to produce novel CO2-in-water (C/W) microemulsions. The swelling elongates the micelles significantly from 20 to 80 nm as the molar ratio of CO2 in the micelles to surfactant (R-CO2) reaches approximately 8. As the micelles swell to form microemulsions, the solubility of pyrene increases by a factor of ca. 10. Fluorescence spectra suggest that pyrene resides primarily in the low-polarity micelle core rather than in the palisade region. The results illustrate the ability of C/W microemulsions to solubilize both lipophilic and fluorophilic substances simultaneously.