Highly concentrated emulsions: 1. Average drop size determination by analysis of incoherent polarized steady light transport

Abstract

The analysis of incoherent polarized steady light transport is reported as a convenient technique for the drop size determination in highly concentrated oil-in-water emulsions. The studied system consists in heptane-in-water emulsions stabilized with a copolymeric surfactant (Synperonic PE®/L64). Hundred grams of parent emulsions, at two volume fractions of dispersed phase ( φ = 0.958 and 0.937) were prepared using a semi-batch process. Then, they were diluted with the aqueous phase to obtain volume fractions ranging from 0.886 to 0.958. The use of a copolymeric surfactant allows the dilution of the highly concentrated emulsions without any change in the particle size distribution as confirmed by laser diffraction measurements. We found that the polarization technique allows the determination of the film thickness between water drops rather than their sizes. Consequently, we propose a geometrical relationship to determine an average drop size from the film thickness. The sensitivity of this alternative technique to detect changes in average drop size was studied by changing some process and formulation parameters. Drop size determination in highly concentrated emulsions via this method is useful since the measurement protocol neither involves dilution nor induces structural changes in the emulsion.