Nanoemulsions Essay

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Nanoemulsion
Introduction
“Emulsions are dispersions of droplets of a liquid phase in a different immiscible liquid. Oildroplets dispersed in water are known as (direct emulsions), whereas water droplets dispersed inoil are called (inverse emulsions) “

nanoemulsions are thermodynamically stable and isotropically clear dispersions of two liquids which are immiscible . ex (oil in water or vice versa), which are stabilized by surfactant molecules forming an interfacial film. They are known to be kinetically stable dispersions of oil and water phase along addition of a surfactant.
Small particles or droplets are usually present in the dispersed phase of nanoemulsions and they have a size range of five to two hundred nm, and the o/w interfacial tension is low. They are transparent due to the droplet size being lower than twenty five percent of the visible light wavelength. The nanoemulsions are formed spontaneously and readily, usually with low-energy input. Most dispersions require a co-solvent along with the surfactants in oil and water phase.

Nanoemulsions can be subdivided into 3 types of dispersions relying on the composition:
• Oil in water nanoemulsions, droplets of oil are immersed in water phase.

• Water in oil nanoemulsions, droplets of water are immersed in oil phase.

• Bi-continuous nanoemulsions, oil and water micro-domains are interspersed in the system.

There are 3 main components of nanoemulsions such as:
• Oil
• Surfactant
• Co-solvent

They are colloidal immersions composed of oil, aqueous, surfactants and co-surfactant at required ratios. They are different compared to coarse emuslions which are micronized by external force, by the usage of co-surfactants, nanoemulsions are showing low interfacial tension. ...

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...aches transparency.
A pseudo-ternary phase diagram is used to determine the percentage of oil phase, the content of surfactant and co-surfactant that should be added. To acquire the wanted size range for the dispersed droplets we use an Ultrasonicator for the dispersion to reach equilibrium. For the formation of a gel we can add a gelling agent ( carbomers) to the nanoemulsion.
Factors taken in consideration when preparing nanoemulsions:
• caution should be taken while choosing a surfactant to achieve a very low interfacial tension in the o/w interface (< 10-3 mN/m).
• a high concentration of surfactant should be attained in order to give enough molecules of surfactants required for the stabilization of the micro-droplets for the production of a very low interfacial tension.
• Flexibility or fluidity is a property which is needed in the formation of nanoemulsions.

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