(136d) Investigating Emulsion Stability and the Impact of Surfactant Type on Transient Emulsion Behavior Using Diffusion Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Techniques

Emulsions are ubiquitous in nature and industry. Fundamental understanding of these dynamic systems is critical to manage industrial processes such as those found in the energy and biofuels industries. Despite the relevance and history of emulsions, significant understanding is still lacking for concentrated emulsions, especially for those formed using solids as surfactants. This work utilizes nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to bridge some of these gaps for concentrated emulsions. A series of experiments are presented for model oils and well characterized surfactants and solids in order to elucidate the impact of stabilizer type on dynamic emulsion behavior. A particular focus of the presentation is on the impact of silica and carbon nanotube stabilizers on dynamic emulsion behavior. The impact of water fraction on emulsion stability and droplet size distributions is also discussed. The diffusion NMR data provide insight about both the speciation and diffusion characteristics of the emulsions investigated.