Silica Particle-stabilized Emulsions of Silicone Oil and Water: Aspects of Emulsification

A study of the emulsification of silicone oil and water in the presence of partially hydrophobic, monodisperse silica nanoparticles is described. Emulsification involves the fragmentation of bulk liquids and the resulting large drops and the coalescence of some of those drops. The influence of particle concentration, oil/water ratio, and emulsification time on the relative extents of fragmentation and coalescence during the formation of emulsions, prepared using either batch or continuous methods, has been investigated. For batch emulsions, the average drop diameter decreases with increasing particle concentration as the extent of limited coalescence is reduced. Increasing the oil volume fraction in the emulsion at fixed aqueous particle concentration results in an increase in the average drop diameter together with a dramatic lowering of the uniformity of the drop size distribution as coalescence becomes increasingly significant until catastrophic phase inversion occurs. For low oil volume fractions (phi(o)), fragmentation dominates during emulsification since the mean drop size decreases with emulsification time. For higher phi(o) close to conditions of phase inversion, coalescence becomes more prevalent and the drop size increases with time with stable multiple emulsions forming as a result.