Effect of micellar collisions and polyvinylpyrrolidone confinement on the electrical conductivity percolation parameters of water/AOT/isooctane reverse micelles

The main aim of this paper is the analysis of micellar collisions and polymer confinement effects on the electrical conductivity percolative behavior of water/sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT)/ isooctane reverse micelles. Firstly, we have performed conductance measurements of the system for three AOT to isooctane volume ratio, phi(m) = 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2 to examine the influence of micellar collisions on the percolation parameters. All the measurements were carried out over the 298.15 K-333.15 K temperature range at a fixed water to AOT molar ratio, W-0 = 45. We have assessed that the rise of micellar collisions frequency enhances the conductance percolation. Secondly, the confinement effect of a water-soluble polymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), on the reverse micelles conductance behavior was investigated. Temperature-induced percolation, T-p, have shown a dependence on the polymer concentration, C-PVP. It was also observed that for various PVP concentrations, the activation energy of percolation decreases. Finally, the values of the critical exponents determined in the presence and absence of PVP prove that the polymer affects the dynamic of percolation. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.