Commemorating 75 Years of Microemulsion

The first scientific paper on microemulsion was published in 1943 by Schulman and Hoar of Cambridge University. Microemulsion is basically made up of oil, water, surfactant and a short-chain alcohol, acid or amide (called ‘cosurfactant’). They were called swollen micelles or by some other names but not microemulsion in 1943 or after. It was rechristened ‘microemulsion’ in 1959 by Schulman et al. who were then at New York’s Columbia University. Research in microemulsion became popular in 1980s when there loomed a large spectre of oil scarcity and its eventual effect on human civilization as we are aware today. Microemulsion was thought to be important for tertiary oil recovery. It has also been found to be useful for nanoparticle synthesis, in pesticide formulation, in drug delivery, and in many other ways, and the research on it still has a great potential and importance. In the 75 year of its innovation (and documentation in the literature), a short but succinct article with its flavour and importance is presented here.