Emulsions Micelles Surfactants

Fluid colloidal system of two or more components. (Gold Book online, 1972 entry [2].) Note Examples of colloidal sols are protein sols, gold sols, emulsions and surfactant solutions above their critical micelle concentrations. 

In one-phase micro emulsions the surfactant molecules partition between the microscopic water/oil interface and the microemulsion sub-phases (e.g. in swollen micelles or bicontin-uous oil- and water-rich domains) in which they are dissolved monomerically. They also dissolve monomerically in coexisting excess phases and adsorb at the macroscopic interfaces between the phases. The significance of this fact is that these parts of the surfactant are not available for the micro-emulsification of water and oil. Thus, for technical applications surfactants with high amphiphilicity but small monomeric solubilities in both solvents are desirable. 

The ability of micellized surfactants to catalyze, or inhibit, reactions and to control stereochemistry and product composition, suggests that these agents could have a useful role in organic synthesis. A micelle can speed a desired reaction and inhibit an undesired one, and, for example, cationic micelles can control the ratio of unimolec-ular, Sfjl, substitution to bimolecular, E2, ehmination [54,55]. Micellization is of great importance in emulsion polymerization, but little use has been made of aqueous micelles in synthesis. 

Micro-emulsion, Reversed Micelles, Surfactants, Membranes, and Poly-electrolytes... 

MICRO-EMULSION, REVERSED MICELLES, SURFACTANTS, MEMBRANES, AND POLYELECTROLYTES... 

With surfactants in water, the decrease in surface tension at a lower concentration is accompanied by the adsorption of surfactants at an interface up to the point of CMC. Beyond this CMC, the surfactants form the micelles or the aggregates of surfactants. Whereas adsorption helps in making suspensions, dispersions, and emulsions, micellization helps in solubilization. 

Figure 9.1 The three stages of emulsion polymerization. Surfactant molecules stabilize large monomer droplets and form small micelles, in which the polymerization takes place. (Reproduced with permission from [3]. Copyright (2007) Elsevier.)...

Weiss J, CanceUiere C, McClements DJ. 2000. Mass transport phenomena in oU-in-water emulsions containing surfactant micelles Ostwald ripening. Langmuir 16 6833. 

To stabilise an emulsion, the surfactant must be present at a concentration above the CMC hence, we shall be mainly concerned with systems of this sort. The phase in which the surfactant forms micelles is dependent on the surfactant s affinity for oil and water. The surfactant s affinity is controlled by a number of factors. Winsof first addressed the problem of describing surfactant affinity. He introduced the concept of interaction energies between surfactant molecules adsorbed at the interface and the oil and water phases. Salager identified different types of interactions. The ratio of the total interaction energies (per unit area of interface) of the surfactant for the oil and water phases is known as Winsor r (symbols are defined below) ... 

In the water-rich region, as the water content increases, the water-oil interfacial area increases and the surfactant molecules are preferentially adsorbed at the water-oil interface. Consequently, the number of micelles would decrease and the spin probe would move from reverse micelles to the water-oil interface with the increase in water concentration. The ESR studies suggested that the positions of the spin probes are different in ordinary and highly concentrated emulsions. The surfactant molecules are distributed between the interface and reverse micelles. In the non-equilibrium state, the number of reverse micelles decreases with increasing water content and finally no reverse micelles are present in the continuous media at very high water content. 

The cleaning process proceeds by one of three primary mechanisms solubilization, emulsification, and roll-up [229]. In solubilization the oily phase partitions into surfactant micelles that desorb from the solid surface and diffuse into the bulk. As mentioned above, there is a body of theoretical work on solubilization [146, 147] and numerous experimental studies by a variety of spectroscopic techniques [143-145,230]. Emulsification involves the formation and removal of an emulsion at the oil-water interface the removal step may involve hydrodynamic as well as surface chemical forces. Emulsion formation is covered in Chapter XIV. In roll-up the surfactant reduces the contact angle of the liquid soil or the surface free energy of a solid particle aiding its detachment and subsequent removal by hydrodynamic forces. Adam and Stevenson s beautiful photographs illustrate roll-up of lanoline on wood fibers [231]. In order to achieve roll-up, one requires the surface free energies for soil detachment illustrated in Fig. XIII-14 to obey... 

The energetics and kinetics of film formation appear to be especially important when two or more solutes are present, since now the matter of monolayer penetration or complex formation enters the picture (see Section IV-7). Schul-man and co-workers [77, 78], in particular, noted that especially stable emulsions result when the adsorbed film of surfactant material forms strong penetration complexes with a species present in the oil phase. The stabilizing effect of such mixed films may lie in their slow desorption or elevated viscosity. The dynamic effects of surfactant transport have been investigated by Shah and coworkers [22] who show the correlation between micellar lifetime and droplet size. More stable micelles are unable to rapidly transport surfactant from the bulk to the surface, and hence they support emulsions containing larger droplets. 

Other solubilization and partitioning phenomena are important, both within the context of microemulsions and in the absence of added immiscible solvent. In regular micellar solutions, micelles promote the solubility of many compounds otherwise insoluble in water. The amount of chemical component solubilized in a micellar solution will, typically, be much smaller than can be accommodated in microemulsion fonnation, such as when only a few molecules per micelle are solubilized. Such limited solubilization is nevertheless quite useful. The incoriDoration of minor quantities of pyrene and related optical probes into micelles are a key to the use of fluorescence depolarization in quantifying micellar aggregation numbers and micellar microviscosities [48]. Micellar solubilization makes it possible to measure acid-base or electrochemical properties of compounds otherwise insoluble in aqueous solution. Micellar solubilization facilitates micellar catalysis (see section C2.3.10) and emulsion polymerization (see section C2.3.12). On the other hand, there are untoward effects of micellar solubilization in practical applications of surfactants. Wlren one has a multiphase... 

The production of organic polymeric particles in tire size range of 30-300 nm by emulsion polymerization has become an important teclmological application of surfactants and micelles. Emulsion polymerization is very well and extensively reviewed in many monographs and texts [67, 68], but we want to briefly illustrated tire role of micelles in tliis important process. 

Figure C2.3.11 Key surfactant stmctures (not to scale) in emulsion polymerization micelles containing monomer and oligomer, growing polymer particle stabilized by surfactant and an emulsion droplet of monomer (reservoir) also coated with surfactant. Adapted from figure 4-1 in [67],...

Although the remainder of this contribution will discuss suspensions only, much of the theory and experimental approaches are applicable to emulsions as well (see [2] for a review). Some other colloidal systems are treated elsewhere in this volume. Polymer solutions are an important class—see section C2.1. For surfactant micelles, see section C2.3. The special properties of certain particles at the lower end of the colloidal size range are discussed in section C2.17. 

The surfactant is initially distributed through three different locations dissolved as individual molecules or ions in the aqueous phase, at the surface of the monomer drops, and as micelles. The latter category holds most of the surfactant. Likewise, the monomer is located in three places. Some monomer is present as individual molecules dissolved in the water. Some monomer diffuses into the oily interior of the micelle, where its concentration is much greater than in the aqueous phase. This process is called solubilization. The third site of monomer is in the dispersed droplets themselves. Most of the monomer is located in the latter, since these drops are much larger, although far less abundant, than the micelles. Figure 6.10 is a schematic illustration of this state of affairs during emulsion polymerization. 

Sta.g C I Pa.rtlcIeNucIea.tlon, At the start of a typical emulsion polymerization the reaction mass consists of an aqueous phase containing smaU amounts of soluble monomer, smaU spherical micelles, and much larger monomer droplets. The micelles are typicaUy 5—30-nm in diameter and are saturated with monomer emulsified by the surfactant. The monomer droplets are larger, 1,000—10,000-nm in diameter, and are also stabilized by the surfactant. 

Asphalt emulsions are dispersioas of asphalt ia water that are stabilized iato micelles with either an anionic or cationic surfactant. To manufacture an emulsion, hot asphalt is mixed with water and surfactant ia a coUoid mill that produces very small particles of asphalt oa the order of 3 p.m. These small particles of asphalt are preveated from agglomerating iato larger particles by a coatiag of water that is held ia place by the surfactant. If the asphalt particles agglomerate, they could settle out of the emulsion. The decision on whether a cationic or anionic surfactant is used depends on the appHcation. Cationic stabilized emulsions are broken, ie, have the asphalt settle out, by contact with metal or siHcate materials as weU as by evaporation of the water. Siace most rocks are siHcate-based materials, cationic emulsions are commonly used for subbase stabilization and other similar appHcations. In contrast, anionic emulsions only set or break by water evaporation thus an anionic emulsion would be used to make a cold patch compound. 

Suspension polymerization produces beads of plastic for styrene, methyl methacrviaie. viny l chloride, and vinyl acetate production. The monomer, in which the catalyst must be soluble, is maintained in droplet fonn suspended in water by agitation in the presence of a stabilizer such as gelatin each droplet of monomer undergoes bulk polymerization. In emulsion polymerization, ihe monomer is dispersed in water by means of a surfactant to form tiny particles held in suspension I micellcsK The monomer enters the hydrocarbon part of the micelles for polymerization by a... 

A novel approach to RAFT emulsion polymerization has recently been reported.461529 In a first step, a water-soluble monomer (AA) was polymerized in the aqueous phase to a low degree of polymerization to form a macro RAFT agent. A hydrophobic monomer (BA) was then added under controlled feed to give amphiphilic oligomers that form micelles. These constitute a RAFT-containing seed. Continued controlled feed of hydrophobic monomer may be used to continue the emulsion polymerization. The process appears directly analogous to the self-stabilizing lattices approach previously used in macromonomer RAFT polymerization (Section 9.5.2). Both processes allow emulsion polymerization without added surfactant. 

Emulsion polymerisation represents the next stage in development from the suspension technique and is a versatile and widely used method of polymerisation. In this technique droplets of monomer are dispersed in water with the aid of an emulsifying agent, usually a synthetic detergent. The detergent forms small micelles 10-100 /im in size, which is much smaller than the droplets that can be formed by mechanical agitation in suspension polymerisation. These micelles contain a small quantity of monomer, the rest of the monomer being suspended in the water without the aid of any surfactant. 

In a multiphase formulation, such as an oil-in-water emulsion, preservative molecules will distribute themselves in an unstable equilibrium between the bulk aqueous phase and (i) the oil phase by partition, (ii) the surfactant micelles by solubilization, (iii) polymeric suspending agents and other solutes by competitive displacement of water of solvation, (iv) particulate and container surfaces by adsorption and, (v) any microorganisms present. Generally, the overall preservative efficiency can be related to the small proportion of preservative molecules remaining unbound in the bulk aqueous phase, although as this becomes depleted some slow re-equilibration between the components can be anticipated. The loss of neutral molecules into oil and micellar phases may be favoured over ionized species, although considerable variation in distribution is found between different systems. 

Surfactants employed for w/o-ME formation, listed in Table 1, are more lipophilic than those employed in aqueous systems, e.g., for micelles or oil-in-water emulsions, having a hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) value of around 8-11 [4-40]. The most commonly employed surfactant for w/o-ME formation is Aerosol-OT, or AOT [sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate], containing an anionic sulfonate headgroup and two hydrocarbon tails. Common cationic surfactants, such as cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and trioctylmethyl ammonium bromide (TOMAC), have also fulfilled this purpose however, cosurfactants (e.g., fatty alcohols, such as 1-butanol or 1-octanol) must be added for a monophasic w/o-ME (Winsor IV) system to occur. Nonionic and mixed ionic-nonionic surfactant systems have received a great deal of attention recently because they are more biocompatible and they promote less inactivation of biomolecules compared to ionic surfactants. Surfactants with two or more hydrophobic tail groups of different lengths frequently form w/o-MEs more readily than one-tailed surfactants without the requirement of cosurfactant, perhaps because of their wedge-shaped molecular structure [17,41]. 

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