Alternative approach to percolation in microemulsions

An approach to study correlated percolation in lattice models of microemulsions is presented. Mean-field-like equations for the percolation locus for each of the molecular species are obtained, whose only input are the structure functions of the microemulsion model. Using a spin-1 Hamiltonian considered by Gompper and Schick [Phys. Rev. B 41, 9148 (1990)] as a model for microemulsions, we find that the water-percolation threshold increases as the surfactant becomes more lipophilic. This is in qualitative agreement with the behavior found in real microemulsions as salt is added to the system.