Abstract
Urea is found to show the hydrotrope action when the aqueous solubility of surfactant CTAB is enhanced while it will show the hydrotrope-solubilization action when the solubilized amount of n-C5H11OH in O/W microemulsion and that of water in W/O microemulsion are increased. The mechanism of the hydrotrope-sotubilization action of urea is in fact the increase of the stability of W/O and O/W microemulsion and structural transition from the lamellar liquid crystal phase to the bicontinuous structure.