Dielectric Properties of Water in Butter and Water-AOT-Heptane Systems Measured using Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy

We investigate the dielectric properties of water confined in nanometer-sized inverse micelles in mixtures of water, AOT, and heptane. We show that the dielectric properties of the confined water are dependent on the water pool size and different from those of bulk water. We also discuss the dielectric properties of different vegetable oils, lard, and butter, and use these properties to deduce the dielectric properties of water in butter, which are shown to deviate significantly from the dielectric properties of bulk water.