Elastic adsorbed nonionic surfactants

Nonionic surfactants stabilize colloidal systems not by electrostatics but basically by osmotic forces. If two sterically stabilized particles approach each other, the soluble parts of the adsorbed chains causes a higher concentration in the interstitials when compared to the average continuous phase. This will cause a flux of continuous phase into the interstitials, which subsequently leads again to drop separation. As nonionic stabilizers are mainly polymeric in nature (for instance, poly(ethylene glycol) chains), elastic forces may contribute to the stability as well. The elastic force per... 

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