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    How Emulsions and Emulsifiers Work

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    Fernanda Sanchez
    This document discusses emulsions and emulsifiers. It begins by defining emulsions as stable mixtures of immiscible fluids, such as oil and water, made possible by emulsifiers. The document then explains that emulsifiers are surfactants with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts that form physical barriers around droplets to prevent coalescence. Depending on the emulsion type (oil-in-water or water-in-oil), the emulsifier orients differently, but always lowers interfacial tension. The type of emulsifier used depends on factors like pH and application. Emulsifiers are important ingredients in many foods, personal care products, and industrial applications.

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    How Emulsions and Emulsifiers Work

    Uploaded by

    Fernanda Sanchez
    21 views3 pages
    This document discusses emulsions and emulsifiers. It begins by defining emulsions as stable mixtures of immiscible fluids, such as oil and water, made possible by emulsifiers. The document then explains that emulsifiers are surfactants with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts that form physical barriers around droplets to prevent coalescence. Depending on the emulsion type (oil-in-water or water-in-oil), the emulsifier orients differently, but always lowers interfacial tension. The type of emulsifier used depends on factors like pH and application. Emulsifiers are important ingredients in many foods, personal care products, and industrial applications.

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    tipos de emulsiones

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    emulsion 6

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    This document discusses emulsions and emulsifiers. It begins by defining emulsions as stable mixtures of immiscible fluids, such as oil and water, made possible by emulsifiers. The document then explains that emulsifiers are surfactants with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts that form physical barriers around droplets to prevent coalescence. Depending on the emulsion type (oil-in-water or water-in-oil), the emulsifier orients differently, but always lowers interfacial tension. The type of emulsifier used depends on factors like pH and application. Emulsifiers are important ingredients in many foods, personal care products, and industrial applications.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    21 views3 pages

    How Emulsions and Emulsifiers Work

    Uploaded by

    Fernanda Sanchez
    This document discusses emulsions and emulsifiers. It begins by defining emulsions as stable mixtures of immiscible fluids, such as oil and water, made possible by emulsifiers. The document then explains that emulsifiers are surfactants with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts that form physical barriers around droplets to prevent coalescence. Depending on the emulsion type (oil-in-water or water-in-oil), the emulsifier orients differently, but always lowers interfacial tension. The type of emulsifier used depends on factors like pH and application. Emulsifiers are important ingredients in many foods, personal care products, and industrial applications.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    After reading this article, you will understand:

     the basic science of emulsions;


     how formulators choose which emulsifier to use for a
    particular emulsion;
     how emulsifiers are used in foods, nutraceuticals, personal and
    home care products, industrial lubricants, environmental
    technologies, biofuels, and other applications.
    The immiscibility of oil and water has inspired the proverb “Oil and
    water don’t mix” and other expressions that reflect the general
    incompatibility of two entities, such as “My coworker and I are like oil
    and water.” Yet within our homes are numerous examples of products in
    which oil and water do mix: mayonnaise, milk, salad dressings, hand
    lotion, and hair conditioner, to name but a few. These examples
    represent emulsions, which are stable mixtures of tiny droplets of one
    immiscible fluid within another, made possible by chemicals called
    emulsifiers.

    How emulsions and emulsifiers work


    Simple emulsions are either oil suspended in an aqueous phase (o/w),
    or water suspended in oil (w/o). Milk is an example of an o/w emulsion,
    in which the fat phase or cream forms tiny droplets within the skim milk,
    or water phase. In contrast, margarine is a w/o emulsion containing
    droplets of water or skim milk in a blend of vegetable oils and fat. In
    both cases, emulsifiers are needed to prevent the suspended droplets
    from coalescing and breaking the emulsion.

    Anybody who has made a simple oil-and-vinegar salad dressing knows


    that, with enough shaking or whisking, one can make a temporary
    emulsion. However, in the absence of emulsifiers, this unstable emulsion
    breaks down within minutes, and the oil forms a layer on top of the
    vinegar. For centuries, cooks have added natural emulsifiers, such as
    egg yolk, mustard, or honey, to help prevent this separation. Today, a
    wide variety of nature-based and synthetic emulsifiers are available for
    the diverse fields that benefit from them, including food, nutraceuticals,
    home and personal care, biofuel, environmental cleanup, and industrial
    lubricant applications.

    Emulsifiers work by forming physical barriers that keep droplets from


    coalescing. A type of surfactant (see Sidebar), emulsifiers contain both a
    hydrophilic (water-loving, or polar) head group and a hydrophobic (oil-
    loving, or nonpolar) tail. Therefore, emulsifiers are attracted to both
    polar and nonpolar compounds. When added to an o/w emulsion,
    emulsifiers surround the oil droplet with their nonpolar tails extending
    into the oil, and their polar head groups facing the water (Fig. 1). For a
    w/o emulsion, the emulsifier’s orientation is reversed: nonpolar tails
    extend outward into the oil phase, while polar head groups point into
    the water droplet. In this way, emulsifiers lower the interfacial tension
    between the oil and water phases, stabilizing the droplets and
    preventing them from coalescing.

    Emulsifiers can be cationic (positively charged polar head group),


    anionic (negatively charged head group), or non-ionic (uncharged head
    group). When charged emulsifiers coat droplets in an o/w emulsion, the
    positive or negative charges on the outside of the oil droplets
    electrostatically repel each other, helping to keep the droplets
    separated. Non-ionic emulsifiers tend to have large, bulky head groups
    that point away from the oil droplet. These polar head groups clash and
    tangle with head groups on other water droplets, sterically hindering the
    droplets from coming together. The type of emulsifier used depends on
    the application, with cationic emulsifiers typically used in low-to-neutral
    pH solutions and anionic emulsifiers in alkaline solutions. Non-ionic
    emulsifiers can be used alone or in combination with charged emulsifiers
    to increase emulsion stability.

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