Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Conditions to produce so-called microemulsions--factors to increase mutual solubility of oil and water by solubilizer

Conference · · ACS Symp. Ser.; (United States)
OSTI ID:5666409

It was confirmed from the studies of phase diagrams that the Schulman's so-called microemulsion is not an emulsion, but a solubilized system or a surfactant phase. It is desirable to find conditions to produce so-called microemulsions in which the solution is stable and solubilization is large so that oil and water mix over wide composition range. As much as about 25% by wt of surfactant was necessary to produce Schulman's so-called microemulsions. Following conditions were found in order to produce microemulsions with far less amount of solubilizer (about 5% by wt): (1) optimum Hydrophile- Lipophile-Balance (HLB) of a surfactant; (2) optimum mixing ratio of surfactants, i.e., optimum HLB of the mixture; (3) optimum temperature for a given nonionic solubilizer; (4) the closer the HLBs of 2 surfactants, the lower the necessary amount of surfactant; (5) mixtures of ionic and nonionic surfactants yield better results, provided the HLBs of 2 surfactants are close to each other; and (6) the larger the sizes of hydrophile and lipophile groups, the more efficient the solubilization.

Research Organization:
Yokohama Natl Univ
OSTI ID:
5666409
Report Number(s):
CONF-710913-
Journal Information:
ACS Symp. Ser.; (United States), Journal Name: ACS Symp. Ser.; (United States) Vol. COLL59; ISSN ACSMC
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English