Surfactant-free microemulsions (SFMEs) formed in the absence of traditional surfactants. It has been revealed that the SFMEs similar to the surfactant-based microemulsions (SBMEs), are expected to have comprehensive potential applications but the present understanding of SFMEs is very limited and many topics about SFMEs needs to be studied. Herein, we report a new SFME system consisting of methyl methacrylate (MMA) as the oil phase and 1-butanol as the amphi-solvent, to synthesis a polymer-based nanocomposite without using surfactant. For this purpose, after construction of the ternary phase diagram of the proposed system, the microstructures and structural transition of the SFME were investigated by measuring electrical conductivity and surface tension. The microenvironment polarity and salt solubility of water domains in the microemulsion region were also investigated. In the phase diagram three different microregions of water-in-MMA, bicontinuous and MMA-in-water regions were identified and compared with SBME system based on the Tween 80 surfactant. The size of the microemulsion droplets were characterized by dynamic light scattering technique. Finally, Ag nanoparticles were synthesized in the polymerizable systems of SFME and SBME to obtain stable colloids and consequently Ag/PMMA nanocomposites, after polymerization process. Transmission electron microscope and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis were used to characterize the synthesized nanocomposites in SFME and SBME systems. The antibacterial activity of the nanocomposites showed the similar results for the samples prepared in SFME and SBME systems. The approach established in current work can potentially be used as a viable and practical method for making numerous other uniforms and morphologically well-defined nanocomposites free of surfactants.

在没有传统表面活性剂的情况下形成不含表面活性剂的微乳液 (SFME)。研究表明，类似于表面活性剂微乳液 (SBME) 的 SFMEs 有望具有全面的潜在应用，但目前对 SFMEs 的了解非常有限，关于 SFMEs 的许多主题需要研究。在此，我们报告了一种新的 SFME 系统，由甲基丙烯酸甲酯 (MMA) 作为油相和 1-丁醇作为两亲物质-溶剂，在不使用表面活性剂的情况下合成聚合物基纳米复合材料。为此，在构建所提出系统的三元相图后，通过测量电导率和表面张力来研究 SFME 的微观结构和结构转变。还研究了微乳液区域中水域的微环境极性和盐溶解度。在相图中确定了 MMA 包水、双连续和 MMA 包水区域的三个不同微区域，并与基于 Tween 80 表面活性剂的 SBME 系统进行了比较。微乳液液滴的大小通过动态光散射技术表征。最后，在 SFME 和 SBME 的可聚合体系中合成 Ag 纳米粒子以获得稳定的胶体，从而获得 Ag/PMMA 纳米复合材料，聚合过程后。透射电子显微镜和能量色散 X 射线分析用于表征 SFME 和 SBME 系统中合成的纳米复合材料。对于在 SFME 和 SBME 系统中制备的样品，纳米复合材料的抗菌活性显示出相似的结果。当前工作中建立的方法有可能被用作一种可行且实用的方法，用于制造许多其他均匀的和形态上明确定义的不含表面活性剂的纳米复合材料。