Study Of Reverse Microemulsion Conductivity And The Preparation Of Nanoparticles Via Electrodeposition

By using self-assembly molecules in microemulsion as a template, nano-materials with various structure and morphologies can be obtained from the microemulsion. The matter contained in water-pools transits via the collision of the water-pools, in the microemulsion, which leads to the synthesis of nanoparticles. However, this synthetic method can only prepare relatively isolated nanoparticles and can't be used for the preparation of functional materials at the appointed surface of an electrode.Electrochemical technique as an effective synthesis and analysis approach has attracted much attention in many fields including energy transform, biology, metallurgy and corrosion science etc. Traditionally, aqueous solution, organic solution and molten salts are used as electrolyte for electrochemical reaction. So far reverse microemulsion that is characterized by low conductivity has not been used as an electrolyte yet.In this thesis, surfactant p-octyl polyethylene glycol phenyl ether (TritonX-100) or cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was mixed with n-hexane, n-hexanol, and water for preparing a reverse microemulsion. The effects of H+ concentration in water phase, concentrations of surfactant and cosurfactant on the microemulsion conductivity were studied. The results demonstrate that by increasing H+ concentration in water phase, the conductivity of reverse microemulsion enhanced greatly. The conductivity of the microemulsion could be increased by 2~3 order of magnitude as the H+ concentration increased from 10-7 mol L-1 to 10 mol L-1. When the H+ concentration in the water phase was 10 mol L-1, the conductivity of microemulsion enhanced as the water volume increased. When the volume ratio of water to oil was 0.3, the conductivity of microemulsion reached about 3000μS cm-1. For the microemulsion systems containing 10mol L-1 H+, the conductivity of microemulsion was improved as the TritonX-100 content increased, while it decreased slightly with the increase of the CTAB content. The conductivity of non-ionic microemulsion decreased with the increase of cosurfactant content, while the conductivity of cationic microemulsion increased with the increase of cosurfactant content initially and then decreased as the cosurfactant content increased further.The reverse microemulsion has conductivity similar to a diluted electrolyte aqueous solution that made it possible for the reverse microemulsion to be used as an electrolyte for electrodeposition. By directly electrodepositing in this electrolyte,...