Lyotropic Behavior of Nonionic Sugar Surfactant and Rheology of the Liquid Crystal

Lyotropic behavior of sugar surfactant is investigated by analyzing the phase behavior and rheology of the liquid crystal (LC) and related LC-based emulsions in a ternary water/sugar surfactant (C12SE)/hexadecane system in presence and absence of a Polyol(1,2-propanediol). A micellar cubic phase (I1) is formed when hexadecane is added into the hexagonal (H1) phase, which exists up to 45 wt% 1,2-propanediol without structural modification. Increasing the complex viscosity on the addition of oil in the I1 phase is possibly associated with the neighboring micellar (due to swelling) interaction or steric interaction (due to shape transformation).