Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.108, No.41, 8641-8645, 2004
Droplet formation in a ternary-fluid mixture: Spontaneous emulsion and micelle formation
A model of a ternary mixture, which in a qualitative way describes an organic solute in water in the presence of an amphiphilic component is simulated by molecular dynamics. The system is cooled, and the separation of droplets shows that the amphiphilic molecules can separate together with the organic solute in various ways. At onset of nucleation and for moderate strength of amphiphilicity the critical nucleus contains both species, but at later stage of this segregation the droplets are emulsionlike with subdomains in the droplets of only one of the two species. When the strength of affinity to the organic solute is increased, the amphiphile molecules are concentrated in the water droplet interface as in a micelle. We argue that D-glyceraldehyde, which is only moderately soluble in water and which has played a crucial role in evolution, together with organic materials is a candidate for such an emulsionlike droplet separation.