Water-in-oil emulsion systems

Nanoparticles have been prepared from polysaccharides, proteins, and amphiphilic macromolecules by inducing their aggregation followed by stabilization either by heat denaturation or chemical cross-linking. The former can be done by water-in-oil emulsion system or in aqueous environments. The cross-... 

Although in fluid milk the phospholipid fraction is more susceptible to oxidation than the triacylglycerol fraction, in dry milk products, the triacylglycerol fraction is more susceptible to oxidation and the phospholipids act as antioxidants. Thus, solvent-extracted milkfat containing phosphohpids is much more stable to oxidation than milkfat free of phospholipids, obtained by melting churned butter (also called butter oil). The susceptibility of milk phospholipids to oxidation appears to be dependent on whether they are suspended in water or fat. This difference of oxidahve stability influences the development of different flavor defects in various dairy products. With butter, which is a water-in-oil emulsion system containing an aqueous phase of phospholipids dispersed in fat, the phosphohpids oxidize more readily than the triacylglycerol components. 

The most common types of emulsions consist of only two Hquids, water and an oil. An o/w emulsion consists of oil droplets dispersed in a continuous aqueous phase, and a w/o emulsion consists of water droplets dispersed in oil (Fig. 1). Occasionally inversion takes place an o/w emulsion changes into w/o emulsion and vice versa. More complex emulsions such as double emulsions are formed because the water droplets in a continuous oil phase themselves contain dispersed oil droplets (Fig. 2). Such oil-in-water-in-oil emulsions are noted as o/w/o. In the same manner a w/o/w emulsion may be formed, which finds use as a system for slow deHvery, extraction, etc (6,7). 

The basic patent (US Patent 3256219) indicates that the system is viable with conventional resins although special grades have been developed that are said to be particularly suitable. One example in the patent recommends the use of a polyester prepared using a maleic acid, phthalic acid and propylene glycol ratio of 2 1 33 and with an acid value of 40. To 500g of such a resin are added 10g of benzoyl peroxide and 167 g of styrene. Water 600 g is then stirred in at 5-10°C until a white creamy water-in-oil emulsion is obtained. A solution of 0.8 g of dimethyl-p-toluidine in lOOg of styrene is stirred into the emulsion and the resin is cast between plates and cured at 50°C. 

In the production of crude oil, the greatest part of the crude oil occurs as a water-in-oil emulsion. The composition of the continuous phase depends on the water/oil ratio, the natural emulsifier systems contained in the oil, and the origin of the emulsion. The natural emulsifiers contained in crude oils have a complex chemical structure, so that, to overcome their effect, petroleum-emulsion demulsifiers must be selectively developed. As new oil fields are developed, and as the production conditions change at older fields, there is a constant need for demulsifiers that lead to a rapid separation into water and oil, as well as minimal-residual water and salt mixtures. 

Phase Inversion The phase inversion of brine/oil/surfactant systems was established routinely by measuring solution conductivity employing a Jenway FWA 1 meter and cell. The process identifies the range over which a large decrease in conductivity occurs as the sytem under test is converted from an oil in water emulsion to a water in oil emulsion. Phase... 

The two main assumptions underlying the derivation of Eq. (5) are (1) thermodynamic equilibrium and (2) conditions of constant temperature and pressure. These assumptions, especially assumption number 1, however, are often violated in food systems. Most foods are nonequilibrium systems. The complex nature of food systems (i.e., multicomponent and multiphase) lends itself readily to conditions of nonequilibrium. Many food systems, such as baked products, are not in equilibrium because they experience various physical, chemical, and microbiological changes over time. Other food products, such as butter (a water-in-oil emulsion) and mayonnaise (an oil-in-water emulsion), are produced as nonequilibrium systems, stabilized by the use of emulsifying agents. Some food products violate the assumption of equilibrium because they exhibit hysteresis (the final c/w value is dependent on the path taken, e.g., desorption or adsorption) or delayed crystallization (i.e., lactose crystallization in ice cream and powdered milk). In the case of hysteresis, the final c/w value should be independent of the path taken and should only be dependent on temperature, pressure, and composition (i.e.,... 

Vesicles are capsules in which the shells are composed of amphiphilic small molecules or polymers. Generally, the shell is an amphiphilic bilayer with an aqueous interior. These differ fundamentally from capsules generated in a water-in-oil emulsion because the oil phase in the vesicle system is only in the shells, which are surrounded by an outer aqueous phase. 

Emulsion A dispersed, two-phase system in which one phase is usually water and the other oil. An emulsion in which oil is dispersed in water is termed an oil-in-water emulsion. An emulsion in which water is dispersed in oil is termed a water-in-oil emulsion. 

In a dispersed system, it is possible to have both phases in existence at the same time. However, whenever fuels emulsify with water, water-in-oil emulsion typically forms. Agents which comprise the external phase of an emulsion are usually the most soluble in the bulk liquid in which the emulsion exists. 

There s another example of water-in-oil compartmentation, which can circumvent this problem water-in-oil emulsions. These can be prepared by adding to the oil a small amount of aqueous surfactant solution, with the formation of more or less spherical aggregates (water bubbles) having dimensions in the range of 20-100 p,m in diameter. These systems are generally not thermodynamically stable, and tend to de-nfix with time. However, they can be long-lived enough to permit the observation of chemical reactions and a kinetic study. 

Pietrini and Luisi (2004) described the synthesis of GFP from mixing two or more initial reagents, utilizing water in oil emulsions, see Figure 9.17. This system is biologically less interesting, however, compartments can fuse with each other and they exhibit no leakage. 

Most popular adjuvants are the incomplete and the complete forms of Freund. The incomplete adjuvant is a water-in-oil emulsion by which the antigen is slowly released, providing a long period of contact between antigen and immune system. The complete adjuvant contains heat-killed Mycobacteria that causes a local injury and granuloma formation, thus providing a nonspecific stimulus. 

Packer and Rees [3] extended the work of Tanner and Stejskal by the development of a theoretical model using a log-normal size distribution function. Measurements made on two water-in-oil emulsions are used to obtain the self-diffusion coefficient, D, of the water in the droplets as well as the parameters a and D0 0. Since then, NMR has been widely used for studying the conformation and dynamics of molecules in a variety of systems, but NMR studies on emulsions are sparse. In first instance pulsed field gradient NMR was used to measure sdf-diffusion coefficients of water in plant cells (e.g. ref. [10]). In 1983 Callaghan... 

Whether the system formed on mixing oil, water, and surfactant will be an oil-in-water or a water-in-oil emulsion is a central problem in emulsion technology. It was realized very early that the volume fractions of oil and water are not that important and that the type of emulsion is primarily determined by the nature of the surfactant. Simply speaking surfactants with Ns < 1 tend to form oil-in-water emulsions, while surfactants with Ns > 1 are more likely to form water-in-oil emulsions. Two more detailed guiding principles which are used for practical emulsion formulation are Bancroft s rule of thumb and the more quantitative concept of the HLB scale ... 

Hoppe, U. and Larsson, K., Water-in-oil emulsions — a study of wool-wax alcohols systems, J. Despersion Sci. Technol., 2, 433,1981. 

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