Comparative analysis of complex liquids based on a multi-experimental approach.

A parallel analysis is here presented between the results gathered by the author by means of three different experimental approaches--Dielectric analysis, Thermally Stimulated Depolarization (TSD) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)--on some multi-component complex liquids consisting of association structures of self-assembling amphiphiles as, water-in-oil microemulsions. The highly dispersed nature of these systems was evidenced with the dielectric study: a Maxwell-Wagner relaxation was found to characterize this type of systems. The structural evolution of the system, against water addition, was well described by the orientational processes induced in the liquid samples by a nearly static electric field as in the TSD method.

Dielectric analysis and Differential Scanning Calorimetry of water-in-oil microemulsions.

The system investigated is a multicomponent thermodynamically stable liquid consisting of water spherical droplets, (approximately 10 nm diameter), stabilized by a surfactant shell and dispersed in a continuous oil phase (microemulsions). A comparative analysis is carried out among the results obtained with three different experimental approaches, namely, dielectric analysis, Thermally Stimulated Depolarization, and Differential Scanning Calorimetry. The different measurement procedures are briefly described.

Experimental studies of the ortho-toluidine glass transition.

The thermodynamic and dynamics proprieties of ortho-toluidine, in the vicinity of a glass transition, have been studied by calorimetric and by two light scattering techniques, depolarized light scattering and time-resolved optical Kerr effect. Differential scanning microcalorimetry clearly detects a glass transition in o-toluidine and it measures some thermodynamics critical parameters, in particular, the transition temperature. The light scattering data have been analyzed according to the mode-coupling theory.