Highly Concentrated Emulsions: Physicochemical Principles of Formulation

Epoxy Phase-Change Materials Based on Paraffin Wax Stabilized by Asphaltenes

The usual problem of meltable phase-change agents is the instability in their form upon heating, which can be solved by placing them into a continuous polymer matrix. Epoxy resin is a suitable medium for dispersing molten agents, but it is necessary to make the obtained droplets stable during the curing of the formed phase-change material. This work shows that molten paraffin wax forms a Pickering emulsion in an epoxy medium and in the presence of asphaltenes extracted from heavy crude oil. Theoretical calculations revealed the complex equilibrium in the epoxy/wax/asphaltene triple system due to their low mutual solubility. Rheological studies showed the viscoplastic behavior of the obtained dispersions at 25 °C, which disappears upon the heating and melting of the paraffin phase. Wax and asphaltenes increased the viscosity of the epoxy medium during its curing but did not inhibit cross-linking or reduce the glass transition temperature of the cured polymer. As a result of curing, it is possible to obtain phase-change materials containing up to 45% paraffin wax that forms a dispersed phase with a size of 0.2-6.5 μm. The small size of dispersed wax can decrease its degree of crystallinity to 13-29% of its original value, reducing the efficiency of the phase-change material.

Thiol-Ene Cross-linking of Poly(ethylene glycol) within High Internal Phase Emulsions: Degradable Hydrophilic PolyHIPEs for Controlled Drug Release

Macroporous polymer monoliths prepared from high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) can be found in various biomedical applications. While typically water-in-oil HIPEs are applied for polyHIPE preparation, they are not suitable for hydrophilic polyHIPE preparation. Herein, direct oil-in-water emulsions based on water-soluble poly(ethylene glycol)diacrylate or poly(ethylene glycol)dimethacrylate were developed. Furthermore, the incorporation of a hydrophilic water-miscible thiol, ethoxylated trimethylolpropane tris(3-mercaptopropionate) (ETTMP) was reported for the first time within thiol–ene polyHIPEs. Due to the transparency of the emulsions, rapid curing via photopolymerization was feasible. The average pore diameters of the resulting polyHIPEs ranged between 1.2 and 3.6 μm, and porosity of up to 90% was achieved. The water uptake of the materials reached up to 1000% by weight. Drug loading and release were demonstrated, employing salicylic acid as a model drug. Porous profile and biodegradability add to the usefulness of the material for biomedical applications.

Prolamin-based complexes: Structure design and food-related applications

Prolamins are a group of safe food additives that are biocompatible, biodegradable, and sustainable. Zein, gliadin, kafirin, and hordein are common prolamins that have been extensively studied, particularly as these form colloidal particles because of their amphiphilic properties. Prolamin-based binary/ternary complexes, which have stable physicochemical properties and superior functionality, are formed by combining prolamins with polysaccharides, polyphenols, water-soluble proteins, and surfactants. Although the combination of prolamins with other components has received attention, the relationship between the structural design of prolamin-based complexes and their functionalities remains uncertain. This review discusses the production methods of prolamin-based complexes, the factors influencing their structural characteristics, and their applications in the food industry. Further studies are needed to elucidate the structure-function relationships between prolamins and other biopolymers, as well as the toxicological effects of these complexes in food.

Pore-scale dynamics of nanofluid-enhanced NAPL displacement in carbonate rock

This study presents a pore-scale investigation of two-phase flow dynamics during nanofluid flooding in subsurface formations containing non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) such as crude oils. The goal was to gain fundamental understanding of the dominant displacement mechanisms of NAPL at different stages of nanofluid injection in a carbonate rock using x-ray microtomography integrated with a miniature core-flooding system. The nanofluid consisted of surfactant-based microemulsions with in-situ synthesized silica nanoparticles. After establishing its initial wettability state, the carbonate core sample was subjected to various pore volumes (PV) of nanofluid flooding (from 0.5 to 10) to examine the impact on NAPL flow dynamics. We found that most NAPL mobilization occurred within the first PV of injection, removing nearly 50% of NAPL from the rock. The nanofluid invaded into larger pores first due to a sharp decrease in NAPL/brine interfacial tension (from 14 to 0.5 mN/m) and contact angle (from 140 to 88°). With higher amount of nanofluid delivered into the pores through advection, over 90% of NAPL droplets were emulsified and their size decreased from 9 to 3 μm. Subsequent nanofluid injection could further remove NAPL from the smaller pores by altering the thickness of NAPL layers adsorbed on the rock. This dynamic solubilization process reached equilibrium after 5 PV of injection, leading to a reduced layer thickness (from 12 to 0.2 μm), a narrower in-situ contact angle distribution around 81°, and an additional 16% of NAPL removal.

Enhancement of the Wettability and Lubrication of Shale Rock via Nanoemulsions

Nanoemulsions have been widely used as additives for drilling fluids in recent years. With the development of nanotechnology, multifunctional nanomaterials have been added to nanoemulsions. The improvement of wettability of the surfaces, alteration of oil-wet on shale rock surfaces, and environmentally friendly conditions are considered as the future development directions of nanoemulsions. In this work, a novel nanoemulsion was prepared by using hydrocarbon-based polyoxyethylene ether, oil (hydrocarbon), distilled water, and formation crude oil as the main raw materials. The shale rocks before and after immersion with as-prepared nanoemulsion were characterized by contact angle measurement, atomic force microscope (AFM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It is clearly observed that the nanoemulsion greatly improved the wettability of the sandstone and rock surface by forming a layer of active agent film on the surface of the rock. The as-prepared nanoemulsion had good ability to curb the anticollapse and lubricate and protect the oil and gas layer.

Coiling ultrathin tellurium nanowires into nanorings by Pickering emulsion

Well-defined hydrophilic ultrathin tellurium nanowires (TeNWs) can be coiled into nanorings by Pickering emulsion at room temperature.

Relaxation NMR as a tool to study the dispersion and formulation behavior of nanostructured carbon materials

Solvent relaxation NMR has been used to estimate the surface areas and wettability of various types of nanostructured carbon materials in a range of solvents including water, ethanol, and tetrahydrofuran. We illustrate the application of the technique through several short case studies using samples including nanocarbon blacks, graphene oxide, nanographites, and porous graphenes. The technique is shown to give a good measure of surface area, correlating well with conventional surface area estimates obtained by nitrogen adsorption, transmission electron microscopy, or light scattering for the non-porous samples. NMR relaxation has advantages in terms of speed of analysis and being able to use concentrated, wet, and opaque samples. For samples that are porous, two distinct surface areas can be estimated assuming the two environments ('inner' and 'outer') have the same surface chemistry, and that there is a slow exchange of solvent molecules between them. Furthermore, we show that differences in wettability and dispersability between samples dispersed in water, ethanol, and cyclopentanone can be observed, along with changes to the surface chemistry of the interface. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Physical chemistry of highly concentrated emulsions

This review explores the physics underlying the rheology of highly concentrated emulsions (HCEs) to determine the relationship between elasticity and HCE stability, and to consider whether it is possible to describe all physicochemical properties of HCEs on the basis of a unique physical approach. We define HCEs as emulsions with a volume fraction above the maximum closest packing fraction of monodisperse spheres, φm=0.74, even if droplets are not of polyhedron shape. The solid-like rheological behavior of HCEs is characterized by yield stress and elasticity, properties which depend on droplet polydispersity and which are affected by caging at volume fractions about the jamming concentration, φj. A bimodal size distribution in HCEs diminishes caging and facilitates droplet movement, resulting in HCEs with negligible yield stress and no plateau in storage modulus. Thermodynamic forces automatically move HCEs toward the lowest free energy state, but since interdroplet forces create local minimums - points beyond which free energy temporarily increases before it reaches the global minimum of the system - the free energy of HCEs will settle at a local minimum unless additional energy is added. Several attempts have been undertaken to predict the elasticity of HCEs. In many cases, the elastic modulus of HCEs is higher than the one predicted from classical models, which only take into account spatial repulsion (or simply interfacial energy). Improved models based on free energy calculation should be developed to consider the disjoining pressure and interfacial rheology in addition to spatial repulsion. The disjoining pressure and interfacial viscoelasticity, which result in the deviation of elasticity from the classical model, can be regarded as parameters for quantifying the stability of HCEs.

High internal phase emulsion templating with self-emulsifying and thermoresponsive chitosan-graft-PNIPAM-graft-oligoproline

High internal phase emulsion (HIPE)-templating is an attractive method of producing high porosity polymer foams with tailored pore structure, pore size and porosity. However, this method typically requires the use of large amounts of surfactants to stabilize the immiscible liquid phases, and polymerizable monomers/cross-linker in the continuous minority phase to solidify the HIPE, which may not be desirable in many applications. We show that polyHIPEs with a porosity of 73% can be formed solely using a copolymer of chitosan-graft-PNIPAM-graft-oligoproline (CSN-PRO), which acts simultaneously as emulsifier and thermoresponsive gelator, and forms upon removal of the liquid templating phases, the bulk structure of the resulting polyHIPE. With only a small amount of surfactant (1%v/v in the aqueous phase), and varying the polymer concentration and internal phase volume ratio, different polyHIPEs with porosities of up to 99%, surface areas in excess of 300 m(2)/g and controlled pore interconnectivity can be formed. The poly(CSN-PRO)HIPEs are also shown to be thermoresponsive and remained intact when immersed into water above 34 °C but dissolve below their LCST, which is useful for applications such as drug delivery and tissue engineering scaffolds.

Synergistic formation and stabilization of oil-in-water emulsions by a weakly interacting mixture of zwitterionic surfactant and silica nanoparticles

Oil-in-water emulsions were formed and stabilized at low amphiphile concentrations by combining hydrophilic nanoparticles (NPs) (i.e., bare colloidal silica) with a weakly interacting zwitterionic surfactant, caprylamidopropyl betaine, to generate a high hydrophilic-lipophilic balance. The weak interaction of the NPs with surfactant was quantified with contact angle measurements. Emulsions were characterized by static light scattering to determine the droplet size distributions, optical photography to quantify phase separation due to creaming, and both optical and electron microscopy to determine emulsion microstructure. The NPs and surfactant acted synergistically to produce finer emulsions with a greater stability to coalescence relative to the behavior with either NPs or surfactant alone. As a consequence of the weak adsorption of the highly hydrophilic surfactant on the anionic NPs along with the high critical micelle concentration, an unusually large surfactant concentration was available to adsorb at the oil-water interface and lower the interfacial tension. The synergy for emulsion formation and stabilization for the two amphiphiles was even greater in the case of a high-salinity synthetic seawater aqueous phase. Here, higher NP adsorption at the oil-water interface was caused by electrostatic screening of interactions between (1) NPs and the anionic oil-water interface and (2) between the NPs. This greater adsorption as well as partial flocculation of the NPs provided a more efficient barrier to droplet coalescence.

High internal phase emulsions: catastrophic phase inversion, stability, and triggered destabilization

We have investigated the formation, drop sizes, and stability of emulsions prepared by hand shaking in a closed vessel in which the emulsion is in contact with a single type of surface during its formation. The emulsions undergo catastrophic phase inversion from oil-in-water (o/w) to water-in-oil (w/o) as the oil volume fraction is increased. We find that the oil volume fraction required for catastrophic inversion exhibits a linear correlation with the oil-water-solid surface contact angle. W/o high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) prepared in this way contain water drops of diameters in the range 10-100 μm; emulsion drop size depends on the surfactant concentration and method of preparation. W/o HIPEs with large water drops show water separation but w/o HIPEs with small water drops are stable with respect to water separation for more than 100 days. The destabilization of the w/o HIPEs can be triggered by either evaporation of the oil continuous phase or by contact the emulsion with a solid surface of the "wrong" wettability.

Compartmentalization and separation of aqueous reagents in the water droplets of water-in-oil high internal phase emulsions

We have compartmentalized aqueous reagents and indicator species within the micrometer-sized water droplets of mixed high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs). Mass transport of the reagents across the micrometer-thickness oil films separating the water droplets followed by reaction with the indicator species produces a visible color change which provides a simple method to measure the trapping times of the reagents. Trapping times have been measured for an uncharged reagent (hydrogen peroxide) and charged reagents (HCl and NaClO) in different HIPEs. The trapping times are discussed in terms of a model in which the transferring species partitions from the water to the oil film followed by a rate-determining step of diffusion across the oil film. Rather surprisingly, it is found that trapping times are of similar orders of magnitude for both uncharged and charged aqueous species transferring across liquid oil films.

Characterization of potent anticholinesterase plant oil based microemulsion

In the present study, essential oils of three edible Thai plants, Cymbopogon citratus (Gramineae), Citrus hystrix (Rutaceae) and Zingiber cassumunar (Zingiberaceae) were comparatively tested for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) inhibitory activities using Ellman's colorimetric method. C. citratus oil exhibited the highest activity with IC(50) values of 0.34±0.07μl/ml and 2.14±0.18μl/ml against BChE and AChE activity, respectively. It was further investigated whether microemulsions of this oil could be obtained. The effects of type of surfactant and co-surfactant as well as pH and ionic strength on the phase behavior of the oil/water system were investigated. Brij 97, Triton X-114, Tween 20 and Tween 85 were employed as surfactant whereas ethanol and hexanol were used as cosurfactants. The size analysis, electrical conductivity measurements and cholinesterase inhibition assays were done in selected microemulsion. The results revealed that the type and concentration of surfactant and co-surfactant exhibited a distinct influence on the C. citratus oil microemulsions. Moreover, the inhibitory activities of the microemulsion formulation were remarkable.

Morphology and stability of CO2-in-water foams with nonionic hydrocarbon surfactants

The morphologies, stabilities, and viscosities of high-pressure carbon dioxide-in-water (C/W) foams (emulsions) formed with branched nonionic hydrocarbon surfactants were investigated by in situ optical microscopy and capillary rheology. Over two dozen hydrocarbon surfactants were shown to stabilize C/W foams with Sauter mean bubble diameters as low as 1 to 2 microm. Coalescence of the C/W foam bubbles was rare for bubbles larger than about 0.5 microm over a 60 h time frame, and Ostwald ripening became very slow. By better blocking of the CO(2) and water phases with branched and double-tailed surfactants, the interfacial tension decreases, the surface pressure increases, and the C/W foams become very stable. For branched surfactants with propylene oxide middle groups, the stabilities were markedly lower for air/water foams and decane-water emulsions. The greater stability of the C/W foams to coalescence may be attributed to a smaller capillary pressure, lower drainage rates, and a sufficient surface pressure and thus limiting surface elasticity, plus small film sizes, to hinder spatial and surface density fluctuations that lead to coalescence. Unexpectedly, the foams were stable even when the surfactant favored the CO(2) phase over the water phase, in violation of Bancroft's rule. This unusual behavior is influenced by the low drainage rate, which makes Marangoni stabilization of less consequence and the strong tendency of emerging holes in the lamella to close as a result of surfactant tail flocculation in CO(2). The high distribution coefficient toward CO(2) versus water is of significant practical interest for mobility control in CO(2) sequestration and enhanced oil recovery by foam formation.

Preparation of Span 80/oil/water highly concentrated emulsions: influence of composition and formation variables and scale-up

The influence of composition and preparation variables on the properties of W/O highly concentrated emulsions obtained in the system Span 80/oil/water was studied. Emulsions prepared with decane, dodecane and hexadecane were analysed. Stability of emulsions was found to depend on the oil as follows: stability of hexadecane emulsions > dodecane > decane. It was attributed to the lower solubility of water in the oil with longer chain. Experimental design tools were used to study the influence of composition and preparation variables and scale-up on the droplet size and polydispersity of emulsions formed. The most important factor was found to be the surfactant-oil ratio, SO, as more surfactant could stabilize more interface, but other preparation variables, like mixing rate, omega, were also found to influence the droplet size and polydispersity. The proper scale-up variables were found not to correspond to the dimensionless variables commonly used in scale-up studies, but total addition time, t(t), and angular mixing velocity, omega, seemed to be the proper ones.

Rheology of emulsions

The review is devoted to the historical and modern understanding of rheological properties of emulsions in a broad range of concentration. In the limiting case of dilute emulsions, the discussion is based on the analogy and differences in properties of suspensions and emulsions. For concentrated emulsions, the main peculiarities of their rheological behaviour are considered. Different approaches to understand the concentration dependencies of viscosity are presented and compared. The effects of non-Newtonian flow curves and the apparent transition to yielding with increasing concentration of the dispersed phase are discussed. The problem of droplet deformation in shear fields is touched. The highly concentrated emulsions (beyond the limit of closest packing of spherical particles) are treated as visco-plastic media, and the principle features of their rheology (elasticity, yielding, concentration and droplet size dependencies) are considered. A special attention is paid to the problem of shear stability of drops of an internal phase starting from the theory of the single drop behaviour, including approaches for the estimation of drops' stability in concentrated emulsions. Polymer blends are also treated as emulsions, though taking into account their peculiarities due to the coexistence of two interpenetrated phases. Different theoretical models of deformation of polymer drops were discussed bearing in mind the central goal of predictions of the visco-elastic properties of emulsions as functions of the properties of individual components and the interfacial layer. The role of surfactants is discussed from the point of view of stability of emulsions in time and their special influence on the rheology of emulsions.

Chemical shift imaging of molecular transport in colloidal systems: Visualization and quantification of diffusion processes

Magnetic resonance imaging with chemical shift resolution is demonstrated to provide detailed information about molecular transport on the macroscopic scale in complex colloidal systems. The concentrations of species with distinct 1H resonance lines can be quantified from spatially resolved, high-resolution, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. The method is demonstrated by experiments on three systems with multiple simultaneous transport processes where the diffusion coefficients depend on position and/or on the concentration of other species: (1) release of poly(ethylene glycol) and imidazole from a hydrogel into an external reservoir of water, (2) migration of acetic acid and tetramethylammonium ions in a highly concentrated water-in-oil emulsion with initially non-uniform concentration of solutes, and (3) release of tetramethylammonium ions loaded into a hydrogel triggered by the diffusion of methyl green into the gel matrix.

On the formation and stability of high internal phase O/W emulsions

High internal phase o/w emulsions have been investigated with respect to stability. A series of aliphatic hydrocarbons were used as the oil component. By matching the refractive index of both phases, transparent, concentrated emulsions were produced and these emulsions were found to have the highest long-term stability. The long-term stability of transparent emulsions is attributed to a minimum in free energy at the equilibrium thickness, which, in turn, is related to a reduced attraction over the thin aqueous lamellae. Another factor that contributes to the stability is the absence of the destabilizing mechanisms commonly encountered for ordinary emulsions and foams.

High internal phase CO2-in-water emulsions stabilized with a branched nonionic hydrocarbon surfactant

A nonionic-methylated branched hydrocarbon surfactant, octa(ethylene glycol) 2,6,8-trimethyl-4-nonyl ether (5b-C12E8) emulsifies up to 90% CO2 in water with polyhedral cells smaller than 10 microm, as characterized by optical microscopy. The stability of these concentrated CO2/water (C/W) emulsions increases with pressure and in some cases exceeds 24 h. An increase in pressure weakens the attractive van der Waals interactions between the CO2 cells across water and raises the disjoining pressure. It also enhances the solution of the surfactant tail and drives the surfactant from water towards the water-CO2 interface, as characterized by the change in emulsion phase behavior and the decrease in interfacial tension (gamma) to 2.1 mN/m. As the surfactant adsorption increases, the greater tendency for ion adsorption is likely to increase the electrostatic repulsion in the thin lamellae and raise the disjoining pressure. As pressure increases, the increase in disjoining pressure and decrease in the capillary pressure (due to the decrease in gamma) each favor greater stability of the lamellae against rupture. The electrical conductivity is predicted successfully as a function of Bruggeman's model for concentrated emulsions. Significant differences in the stability are observed for concentrated C/W emulsions at elevated pressure versus air/W or C/W foams at atmospheric pressure.

Rheology of high internal phase emulsions

The mechanical dispersion technology used in this study employs rotor-stator mixers that produce water-continuous high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) with narrow drop size distributions and small drop sizes, even when the internal phase (oil) viscosity is quite high. Analysis of these HIPEs reveals trends that are consistent with formation by a capillary instability mechanism in which a shear deformation produces highly elongated drops that rupture to form uniform, small droplets. In the search for a predictive tool to aid in the manufacture and use of HIPEs, rheology data for these shear-thinning HIPEs have been compared to data for models in the literature. Existing models do not correctly account for the effect of a high internal phase viscosity on the rheological properties of the HIPE. Another shortcoming is failure to correctly address the shear-thinning exponent. Whereas internal phase viscosity does not seem to affect the shear-thinning exponent, the surfactant apparently plays an important role, possibly through its modification of the interfacial tension and continuous phase rheology.