Figure 3.

Ternary phase diagram of the AOT‐isooctane‐water system at 25°C. The investigated part of the phase diagram consists of single‐phase regions of lamellar liquid crystalline (LC) phase (lam), cubic LC phase (cub), reverse hexagonal LC phase (rev hex), and reverse micellar solution (rev mic). The main features of the diagram are consistent with the phase diagram of the same system presented in 95. Black dots show the compositions of the samples used in the present investigation, and the orange cross indicates the composition selected for manufacturing of the phantom (44.12 Wt % AOT, 13.94 Wt % isooctane, and 41.94 Wt % water). Samples with compositions within the shaded region were difficult to characterize unambiguously, but inspection in cross‐polarized light revealed that they consist primarily of anisotropic phases (likely involving reverse hexagonal and/or lamellar). The insets display a polarized light microscopy image (left) and a plot of the SAXS intensity I versus the scattering vector Q (right) for a sample with the composition used in the phantom, which both confirm that the sample shows hexagonal nanostructure.