Ising Criticality of Complex Fluids with a Confinement by Charge Density Waves

Electrolytes containing amphiphilic components and ions are widely used as electrolytes in batteries and fuel/electrolysis cells. The dynamics and diffusion constants of all the different components are usually related to the transport coefficients that determine the maximum current in the application. The structure of the domains provides a fundamental understanding of the transport properties, but is also of great interest for the academic understanding of such systems. Near the phase boundary of miscibility, strong composition fluctuations can develop. This is where Ising criticality comes into play, which is sensitive to the arrangement of the ions (of the surfactant or antagonistic salt). Charge density waves are usually formed with a locally lamellar character of the surfactant or antagonistic salt, and so the quasi-binary fluid is confined to 2 dimensions between the surfactant (antagonistic salt). The high-Q small-angle scattering reveals the interfacial properties of the domains and thus has different properties in different directions related to the underlying mechanism (influenced by the surfactant or criticality), as we recently observed in ZOOM experiments.