Esters in water/oil microemulsion stabilised by anionic surfactant and a medium chain alcohol

Four esters esters were applied in the W/O microemulsion phase of water/sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS): hexan-1-ol(35:65)/hydrocarbon (n-decane and ρ-xylene) to study their solubility behaviour in such system. The esters used were ethyl-n-butyrate, ethyl benzoate, methyl oleate and methyl linolenate. The solubility of the esters was observed to be dependent of the ratio of the SDS: hexan-1-ol and hydrocarbon. A higher solubility of the esters was observed in a larger ratio with ethyl-n-butyrate showing the highest solubility. The solubility was, however, inversely proportional to the water content of the microemulsion. The type of hydrocarbon was observed to have little or no appreciable effect on the solubility of the esters. (author)