What is the origin of conductivity in water-poor reverse micelles?

What is the origin of conductivity in water-poor reverse micelles? | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article What is the origin of conductivity in water-poor reverse micelles? Thomas Zemb, Sandrine Dourdain, Tobias Lopian, Jean-Francois Dufrêche, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4313185/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Conductivity of water in oil microemulsions as well as reverse micelles of anionic surfactants depend on cations as charge transporters. We first use the versatile molecular system toluene/diethylhexylphosphate H x Na 1−x DEHP/water to investigate the domains in the phase prism in which four molecular mechanisms of conductivity are identified. The reduced molar conductivity varies over six orders of magnitude. In the regime of “reverse micelles”, where all water in the organic phase is bound as first layer of hydration of head-groups, the dismutation mechanism, discovered by HF Eicke, dominates. In the w/o microemulsion region, we identify three more conductivity regimes occurring in different regions of the phase diagram. Beyond the dynamic and static percolation, we identify also a more elusive regime: the curvature frustration regime is characterized by a decrease in molar conductivity observed upon addition of water. This anti-percolation regime is due to curved film packing frustration that is at the origin of an increase of tortuosity. The HDEHP/toluene/water system is the first molecular system for which the four conductivity regimes can be easily observed at room temperature. We also identify the last three conductivity regimes in a microemulsion based on AOT. The single-phase inversion channel, studied as a function of temperature, is limited by Winsor II and Winsor I phase separation. In this domain, the three regimes that can be found are dynamic percolation, anti-percolation as well as static percolation. Therefore, we propose that all four different mechanisms are found in ternary w/o microemulsions containing cations as charge carriers. microemulsion reverse micelle conductivity percolation anti-percolation Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files PapIIConductivitySIV34.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 25 Aug, 2024 Reviews received at journal 12 Aug, 2024 Reviews received at journal 07 Jul, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 01 Jul, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 27 Jun, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 20 Jun, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 14 Jun, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 14 Jun, 2024 First submitted to journal 23 Apr, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4313185","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":320591433,"identity":"f368b8c3-0838-4562-988f-f9698999ecc7","order_by":0,"name":"Thomas Zemb","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA0ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCTiLh/FBAohmPoBfBw+SFmYDsBa2BOK1sEHYhLTYSzcf3fDjD4M9v9jZYxUPauqiGdh4H+C3ReZY2s3eNgZmydl5aTcSjh3ObWBjNyDgsByzG7wNDGwGt4GMxIYDuQ3ybYT8kmN2888fBh57oJaCxIY6oC1shLXc5mFjkDCQzjFjSGxgJkLLjbS027JtEgYSt/OSJUB+aSOkhX1G8rGbb/7Y2PPPzj348UdNXW4/IS1QgIgdBuI0jIJRMApGwSjACwDDID5dNMz5sQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"ICSM, Univ. 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