Dispersed phase nature

Drilling fluids are classified as to the nature of the continuous phase gas, water, oil, or synthetic. Within each classification are divisions based on composition or chemistry of the fluid or the dispersed phase. 

Colloidal State. The principal outcome of many of the composition studies has been the delineation of the asphalt system as a colloidal system at ambient or normal service conditions. This particular concept was proposed in 1924 and described the system as an oil medium in which the asphaltene fraction was dispersed. The transition from a coUoid to a Newtonian Hquid is dependent on temperature, hardness, shear rate, chemical nature, etc. At normal service temperatures asphalt is viscoelastic, and viscous at higher temperatures. The disperse phase is a micelle composed of the molecular species that make up the asphaltenes and the higher molecular weight aromatic components of the petrolenes or the maltenes (ie, the nonasphaltene components). Complete peptization of the micelle seems probable if the system contains sufficient aromatic constituents, in relation to the concentration of asphaltenes, to allow the asphaltenes to remain in the dispersed phase. 

In general, the multiphasic heterogenous nature of the impact grade styrene-based polymers is the root cause of their opaque-turbid nature. In determining the transparency of the blends, size and the size-distribution pattern of the dispersed phase along with the refractive index difference between the continuous and the dispersed phases are two very important criterion [133]. 

Returning to the molecular force concept, in any particular distribution system it is rare that only one type of interaction is present and if this occurs, it will certainly be dispersive in nature. Polar interactions are always accompanied by dispersive interactions and ionic interactions will, in all probability, be accompanied by both polar and dispersive interactions. However, as shown by equation (11), it is not merely the magnitude of the interacting forces between the solute and the stationary phase that will control the extent of retention, but also the amount of stationary phase present in the system and its accessibility to the solutes. This leads to the next method of retention control, and that is the volume of stationary phase available to the solute. 

The interactions between similar particles, dissimilar particles, and the dispersion medium constitute a complex but essential part of dispersion technology. Such interparticle interactions include both attractive and repulsive forces. These forces depend upon the nature, size, and orientation of the species, as well as on the distance of separation between and among the particles of the dispersed phase and the dispersion medium, respectively. The balance between these forces determines the overall characteristics of the system. 

An emulsion is a dispersed system of two immiscible phases. Emulsions are present in several food systems. In general, the disperse phase in an emulsion is normally in globules 0.1-10 microns in diameter. Emulsions are commonly classed as either oil in water (O/W) or water in oil (W/O). In sugar confectionery, O/W emulsions are most usually encountered, or perhaps more accurately, oil in sugar syrup. One of the most important properties of an emulsion is its stability, normally referred to as its emulsion stability. Emulsions normally break by one of three processes creaming (or sedimentation), flocculation or droplet coalescence. Creaming and sedimentation originate in density differences between the two phases. Emulsions often break by a mixture of the processes. The time it takes for an emulsion to break can vary from seconds to years. Emulsions are not normally inherently stable since they are not a thermodynamic state of matter. A stable emulsion normally needs some material to make the emulsion stable. Food law complicates this issue since various substances are listed as emulsifiers and stabilisers. Unfortunately, some natural substances that are extremely effective as emulsifiers in practice are not emulsifiers in law. An examination of those materials that do stabilise emulsions allows them to be classified as follows ... 

Most hand creams are colloidal, and generally have a thick, creamy consistency. The majority of hand creams are formulated as a liquid-in-liquid colloid (an emulsion), in which the dispersion medium is water based, and the dispersed phase is an oil such as palm oil or cocoa butter . These oils are needed to replenish in the skin those natural oils lost through excessive heat and work. 

Manson (72,) expanded the concept to the solid state by observing that the strength of composite materials also depended upon the acid-base interaction between continuous and dispersed phases. More directly, Vanderhoff et al. (21) addressed the issue of adhesion of polymeric materials to corroded steel. They synthesized eight corrosion products of iron, and used the interaction scheme developed by Fowkes and Manson first to characterize the iron corrosion products as Lewis acids or bases and then to select polymer vehicles for practical coating systems. Such results were employed to enhance the adhesion of epoxy systems to substrates which were predominantly iron oxide in nature. A good overview of these Issues was presented by Fowkes in 1983 (74). ... 

It is probable that numerous interfacial parameters are involved (surface tension, spontaneous curvature, Gibbs elasticity, surface forces) and differ from one system to the other, according the nature of the surfactants and of the dispersed phase. Only systematic measurements of > will allow going beyond empirics. Besides the numerous fundamental questions, it is also necessary to measure practical reason, which is predicting the emulsion lifetime. This remains a serious challenge for anyone working in the field of emulsions because of the polydisperse and complex evolution of the droplet size distribution. Finally, it is clear that the mean-field approaches adopted to measure > are acceptable as long as the droplet polydispersity remains quite low (P < 50%) and that more elaborate models are required for very polydisperse systems to account for the spatial fiuctuations in the droplet distribution. 

These two equations thus define, according to von Weimarn, both the nature of the disperse phase produced by condensation and the life of the disperse in the form produced at the moment of separation. 

Accounting for the influence of surface-active contaminants is complicated by the fact that both the amount and the nature of the impurity are important in determining its effect (G7, L5, Rl). Contaminants with the greatest retarding effect are those which are insoluble in either phase (L5) and those with high surface pressures (G7). A further complication is that bubbles and drops may be relatively free of surface-active contaminants when they are first injected into a system, but internal circulation and the velocity of rise or fall decrease with time as contaminant molecules accumulate at the interface (G3, L5, R3). Further effects of surface impurities are discussed in Chapters 7 and 10. For a useful synopsis of theoretical work on the effect of contaminants on bubbles and drops, see the critical review by Harper (H3). Attention here is confined to the practically important case of a surface-active material which is insoluble in the dispersed phase. The effects of ions in solution or in double layers adjacent to the interface are not considered. 

The difference between macroscopic and microscopic objects is clear from everyday experience. For example, a glass marble will sink rapidly in water however, if we grind it into snb-micron-sized particles, these will float or disperse freely in water, prodncing a visibly clondy soln-tion , which can remain stable for honrs or days. In this process we have, in fact, prodnced a colloidal dispersion or solution. This dispersion of one (finely divided or microscopic) phase in another is quite different from the molecular mixtures or true solutions formed when we dissolve ethanol or common salt in water. Microscopic particles of one phase dispersed in another are generally called colloidal solutions or dispersions. Both nature and industry have found many uses for this type of solution. We will see later that the properties of colloidal solu-... 

The properties of colloidal dispersions are intimately linked to the high surface area of the dispersed phase and the chemistry of these interfaces. This linkage is well illustrated by the titles of two of the main journals in this area the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science and Colloids and Surfaces. The natural combination of colloid and surface chemistry represents a major area of both research activity and industrial development. It has been estimated that something like 20 per cent of all chemists in industry work in this area. 

Polar interactions between molecules arise from permanent or Induced dipoles existing in the molecules and do not result from permanent charges as in the case of Ionic interactions. Examples of polar substances having permanent dipoles would be alcohols, ketones, aldehydes etc. Examples of polarizable substances would be aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene or toluene. It is considered that, when a molecule carrying a permanent dipole comes Into close proximity to a polarizable molecule, the field from the molecule with the permanent dipole induces a dipole in the polarizable molecule and thus electrical interaction can occur. It follows that to selectively retain a polar solute, then the stationary phase must also be polar and contain, perhaps, hydroxyl groups. If the solutes to be separated are strongly polar, then perhaps a polarizable substance such as an aromatic hydrocarbon could be employed as the stationary phase. However, to maintain strong polar interactions with the stationary phase (as opposed to the mobile phase) the mobile phase must be relatively non-polar or dispersive in nature. 

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the efficacy of inferring the interdroplet forces in a concentrated protein stabilized oil-in-water emulsion from the knowledge of the equilibrium profile of continuous phase liquid holdup (or, dispersed phase faction) when the emulsion is subjected to a centrifugal force field. This is accomplished by demonstrating the sensitivity of continuous phase liquid holdup profile for concentrated oil-in-water emulsions of different interdroplet forces. A Mef discussion of the structure of concentrated oil-in-water emulsion is presented in the next section. A model for centrifugal stability of concentrated emulsion is presented in the subsequent section. This is followed by the simulation of continuous phase liquid holdup profiles for concentrated oil-in-water emulsions for different centrifugal accelerations, protein concentrations, droplet sizes, pH, ionic strengths and the nature of protein-solvent interactions. 

The first criterion for the formation of a HIPE is, of course, the presence of two immiscible liquids, one of which is water (or aqueous solution), almost without exception. The nature of the organic, or oil, phase can vary to a considerable extent, although the most stable HIPEs are generally produced with more hydrophobic liquids. However, it is the nature of the surfactant employed to stabilise the HIPE which will ultimately facilitates its formation. Above a certain critical limit of internal phase volume, an emulsion will tend to invert to the opposite type, i.e. an oil-in-water (o/w) emulsion will become the w/o variety, and vice versa. This can be prevented from occurring by careful choice of surfactant, such that it is completely insoluble in the dispersed phase of the emulsion. 

Other polymer materials which can be prepared include latexes, or particle agglomerates, by dispersed phase polymerisation. These can be either hydrophilic or hydrophobic in nature, or may have core-shell morphologies. They can be employed as support materials for a number of catalyst systems. Polymerisation of both phases of the emulsions produces composite materials, which have found use as selective membranes for the separation of mixtures of liquids with similar physical properties. 

Above we used the words continuous phase and dispersed phase to refer to the medium and to the particles, respectively, in the colloidal size range. It should be understood that these are solvent and solute in lyophilic systems. In micellar systems, the micelles are dispersed in an aqueous continuous phase. Furthermore, the system as a whole is generally called a dispersion when we wish to emphasize the colloidal nature of the dispersed particles. This terminology is by no means universal. Lyophilic dispersions are true solutions and may be called such, although this term ignores the colloidal size of the solute molecules. 

Lyophobic colloids are known by a variety of terms, depending on the nature of the phases involved. Some of these are listed in Table 1.4. Some of the terms (e.g., aerosol, gel) are somewhat ambiguous, so the reader is warned to make certain that the system is fully understood, particularly when the original literature is consulted. Remember that a common feature of all systems we consider is that some characteristic linear dimension of the dispersed particles falls in the range defined in Section 1.1a. When we deal with two-phase colloids in this book, we are primarily concerned with systems in which the dispersed phase is solid and the continuous phase is liquid. 

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