Thermodynamisch stabile Pickering-Emulsionen

• Applicant: Dr. Rainer Wüstneck
• Subject Area: Chemical and Thermal Process Engineering
• Term: from 2009 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 140843930

A group at the University Utrecht postulated the existence of emulsions stabilized by particles, which form spontaneously, and evolve in a self-regulating process into a monodisperse state, which is interpreted as thermodynamically stable. The confirmation and generalization of these results open up a wide field to formulate emulations free of surfactant. After processing we can principally confirm the results of the Utrecht group, whereas the reason for the appearance of this kind of emulsions is however up to now not fully understood yet. Only two other oil phases could be found, which also form similar emulsions. At the oil/water interface stabilized by SiO2-particles visible network like structures are formed. This process, however, is not an essential prerequisite for this kind of emulsification. The maximum depression of the oil/water interfacial tension in presence of SiO2-particles also does not yield a useable criterion to forecast the formation of this kind of emulsions. Therefore, future work is dedicated to find out the underlying processes including the determination of binding isotherms and force-distance measurements of particles at the oil/water interface. Here, also modified SiO2-particles or other particles will be used as well as the addition of co-surfactants and apolar additives.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1273: Colloid Process Engineering