Emulsion-based methods

Ultrasound-assisted emulsification in aqueous samples is the basis for the so-called liquid membrane process (LMP). This has been used mostly for the concentration and separation of metallic elements or other species such as weak acids and bases, hydrocarbons, gas mixtures and biologically important compounds such as amino acids [61-64]. LMP has aroused much interest as an alternative to conventional LLE. An LMP involves the previous preparation of the emulsion and its addition to the aqueous liquid sample. In this way, the continuous phase acts as a membrane between both the aqueous phases viz. those constituting the droplets and the sample). The separation principle is the diffusion of the target analytes from the sample to the droplets of the dispersed phase through the continuous phase. In comparison to conventional LLE, the emulsion-based method always affords easier, faster extraction and separation of the extract — which is sometimes mandatory in order to remove interferences from the organic solvents prior to detection. The formation and destruction of o/w or w/o emulsions by sonication have proved an effective method for extracting target species. 

Cellular autoradiography techniques using radioactive nucleic acid probes have several features in common with nucleic acid immunocytochemistry. The method is based on the hybridization of radioactive probes to cellular targets and the subsequent exposure of photographic emulsion, which, when developed, reveals blackened (exposed) silver grains close to the site of hybridiza-hon. Hence, cellular autoradiography techniques permit excellent specihcity and localizahon of the hybridized probe—to 1 qm when tritium is the label used in the autoradiography-based method (9). 

A) Elaboration of PLLA-based superparamagnetic nanoparticles Characterization, magnetic behavior study and in vitro relaxivity evaluation Abstract. Oleic acid-coated magnetite has been encapsulated in biocompatible magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) by a simple emulsion evaporation method. 

A blend was prepared by dissolving a rubber material in styrene and polymerizing the system. The blend contains not only rubber and polystyrene (PS), but also a graft polymer because of the attachment of short polystyrene side chains to the rubber molecules. The toughness of this material was markedly improved compared to that of the unmodified PS. A technology based on bulk polymerization [26] has been widely used the concentrated emulsion polymerization method employed by us, however, allows one to obtain rubber toughened latexes. 

Cross-linked polystyrene porous particles (with 21 mol% DVB) have been prepared by the concentrated emulsion polymerization method, using either toluene or decane as the porogen and an aqueous solution of SDS as the continuous phase. Since toluene is a good solvent for polystyrene while decane is a nonsolvent , the morphologies obtained in the two cases were different. The particles based on toluene (with a volume fraction of dispersed phase of 78%) have very small pores which could not be detected in the SEM pictures. The pore size distribution, which has sizes between 20 and 50 A and was determined with an adsorption analyzer, almost coincides with that in a previous study [49] in which porous polystyrene beads have been prepared by suspension polymerization. In contrast, the porous particles based on decane have pore sizes as large as 0.1-0.3 pm, which could be detected in the SEM pictures [44a], and also larger surface areas (47 m2 g ) than those based on toluene (25 m2 g ). The main difference between the concentrated emulsion polymerization and the suspension polymerization consists of the much smaller volume fraction of continuous phase used in the former procedure. The gel-like emulsion that constitutes the precursor in the former case contains polyhedral cells separated by thin films of continuous phase. The polymerization of the cells does not... 

Surfactant adsorption is an excellent method of tailoring microparticle surface chemistry because the surfactant can be designed to stabilize the forming particle surface during an emulsion-based fabrication procedure. Surface chemistry analysis is established as a vital component of the microparticle design process because it allows the amount of surfactant adsorbing to a surface to be quantified. 

In the solvent method the separation of the solubilised or dispersed material from the solvent phase can be explained by precipitation or phase change induced by solvent evaporation, addition of electrolyte, pH modification or heat treatment (Krochta and McHugh 1997). Such treatments can be adjusted to enhance film formation or specific properties. For composite emulsion-based films or coatings a lipid material and most likely a surfactant, is added to the solution, which is then heated above the lipid melting point and homogenised. The prepared solution is then applied on an appropriate support and the solvent evaporates. 

The pharmaceutical field is among those most widely exploiting ultrasonic emulsification (mainly for the preparation of emulsion-based drugs). Thus, US emulsification has been recently used to prepare biodegradable nanoparticles that can in turn be used to obtain drug-loaded biodegradable microspheres. The method involves ultrasonic emulsification in a continuous flow system to obtain suspended nanoparticles, followed by collection of the particles, solvent extraction and evaporation [49]. 

In many cases, anhydrous metal oxides have been prepared by solvothermal treatments of sol-gel or micro-emulsion-based precursors. Wu and coworkers prepared anatase and rutile Ti02 by a micro-emulsion-mediated method, in which the micro-emulsion medium was further treated by hydrothermal reaction [171]. This micro-emulsion-mediated hydrothermal (MMH) method could lead to the formation of crystalline titania powders under much milder reaction conditions. 

The detailed emulsion characterization methods discussed herein can be used to help resolve operational upsets only if a base line of data exists for normal operation. In fact, without a thorough characterization of the normal emulsion properties such as size distribution and mineral and organic composition, the techniques for detailed characterization may actually hinder the understanding and ultimate solution of a particular processing problem by introducing extraneous information. When a base line of data exists, detailed information on the size distribution and the relationship between the dispersed, continuous, and solid phases is invaluable. 

As the hydrophilic nature of the poloxamer surfactants prevented their use as stabilizers of the primary w/o emulsion, and as the more lipophilic members of the series degrade on irradiation, an alternative approach - a modified emulsion polymerization method based on the technique of Ekman and Sjoholm (42) has been used to gel the internal aqueous phase. 

Controlled free-radical polymerization (CFRP) has been used successfully to produce block, graft, and other controlled architecture copolymers within the last decade for a variety of free radically polymerizable monomers. The main techniques include reversible addition fragmentation and transfer (RAFT) polymerization, stable free-radical polymerization (SFRP) mediated by nitroxide/alkoxyamine based radicals, atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), diphenyl ethylene (DPE) mediated polymerization, and novel precipitation/emulsion polymerization based methods like free-radical retrograde precipitation polymerization (FRRPP). ... 

Bicontinuous microemulsion, inverse microemulsion, and emulsion are all wet chemistry based methods to produce nanometer size HA powders. All three methods yield >97% relative density upon sintering at 1200°C for 2 h. The biocontinuous and inverse microemulsion resulted in the two smallest HA particle sizes, 22 and 24 nm respectively [Lim et al., 1997]. 

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