Carbon dioxide-in-water microemulsions.

Liquid and supercritical carbon dioxide swell potassium carboxylate perfluoropolyether (PFPE-K) cylindrical micelles in water to produce novel CO(2)-in-water (C/W) microemulsions. The swelling elongates the micelles significantly from 20 to 80 nm as the molar ratio of CO(2) 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.