Abstract
To investigate the phase equilibria and structural properties of microemulsions, we study a simple phenomenological model on the basis of the cubic lattice cell with which the oil- and water-filled cells are connected one another, respectively. The surfactant is assumed to be insoluble in both oil and water, and to be adsorbed at the oil-water interface. The Schulman condition, according to which the lateral pressure of the surfactant layer is compensated by the oil-water interfacial tension, is found to hold to good approximation in the middle-phase microemulsion. Our results show that the oil- and water-filled domains in that microemulsion are about 50-150 $\AA$ across, and depend sensitively on the curvature parameters. The phase diagram is not symmetric in this model. It may be asymmetrized intrinsically by non-equivalency of oil and water. The two- and tree-phase equilibria including critical points and critical endpoints are found.