We use molecular dynamics (MD) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements to analyze the size of reverse micellar structures in the AOT-water-isooctane system at different water-to-surfactant ratios at ambient temperature and pressure. We find good qualitative agreement for the size and morphology behavior of the reverse micelle structures between molecular dynamics calculations and DLS measurements; however, the average values for the reverse micelle size distributions are systematically larger for the DLS measurements. The latter tends to capture the average hydrodynamic size of the structures based on self-diffusion rather than the average physical size as measured in MD simulations, explaining the systematic deviations observed. The combination of MD with DLS allows a better interpretation of the experimental results, in particular for conditions where the structures are nonspherical, commonly observed at lower water-to-surfactant ratios. We also present and analyze the effect of zirconyl chloride on the micellar size distributions in this system. These type of salts are common for reverse micellar synthesis processes. We find that zirconyl chloride affects significantly the size distributions.

No abstract

This dissertation explores how the American public school system has become the primary institution for citizens to project, contest, or affirm their values. Primarily, this revolves around competing ideas of democratic education. After World War II, politicians utilized the schools to propagate American democracy, while citizens viewed education as a means to reconstruct the postwar democratic order. Although most representatives acknowledged the schools needed to guard democracy and stem totalitarian aggression, few agreed on how education should accomplish such a feat. Consequently, "democratic education" deviated from its theoretical moorings and found a newly nationalistic expression in a Cold War era of scrutiny and hyper-politicization This development magnified the societal importance of the American school, as debates no longer hinged around purely education but rather over competing notions of American democracy. Indeed, no longer were educational disputes the sole domain of rival educational camps. Rather educational disputes once contained within schoolroom walls increasingly became hashed out in New York's schools, churches, labor unions, civic centers, and neighborhoods. These educational disputes, heightened in fury, and feverish in pitch, ushered in a new era of educational controversy that became part of America's Cold Culture Wars.