Efecto del polímero carboximetil celulosa de sodio sobre la inversión de emulsiones

Abstract

Phase inversion is the process in which emulsion oil-in-water (O/W) is transformed to water-in-oil emulsion (W/O). There are two types of emulsion inversion. The first one is based on the variation of the system formulation and is called transitional inversion whereas the second one, which takes place when the water/oil ratio is changed, is so -called catastrophic inversion. The latter, depends on the stirring energy and duration, as well as on the viscosity, as well as the viscosity of the oil phase. The present study reports the effect of an increase of aqueous phase viscosity by adding an anionic polymer (carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt) on phase behavior and standard inversion boundary. The effect of the stirring energy is also reported. The results indicate that the addition of carboxymethylcellulose alters the formulation, which results in variations in phase behavior and standard inversion boundary. It is shown that an increase of the aqueous phase viscosity produces a considerable increase in the three phase’s region in the equilibrated systems until a viscosity of 0.5 Pas is attained, with an insignificant increase on this zone between 0.5- 1Pa.s. An increase in the viscosity of the aqueous phase also shifts the catastrophic branch of the standard inversion line, hence reducing the region of O/W emulsions for viscosities lower than 0.5 Pa.s. and this line keeps constant for higher viscosities.