Mesoscopic Correlations in Aqueous Alkylamine Mixtures Between Molecular and Micro Emulsions

Abstract

Understanding how molecular correlations give rise to mesoscale organization is central to the physics of complex fluids such as hydrogen-bonded mixtures. In this work, we develop a mesoscale bridge formalism that connects the site-site Ornstein-Zernike (SSOZ) framework to the field theoretical Teubner-Strey (TS) approach. This bridge highlights how local orientational correlations, typically lost in the SSOZ closure, reemerge as effective long-range components at the mesoscale. The resulting theory provides a unified description of density fluctuations spanning molecular to mesoscopic length scales. The approach is illustrated using X-ray scattering spectra from simulated and experimental hydrogen-bonded fluids, showing that the TS representation captures the essential features of the mesoscale structure. Beyond this specific application, the proposed formalism offers a general route to interpret the structural crossover between microscopic interactions and collective mesoscale organization in complex fluids, including aqueous and amphiphilic systems.