Stability of Orange Oil/Water Nanoemulsions Prepared by the Pit Method

Abstract

This article reports the preparation and characterization of orange oil/water nanoemulsions stabilized by commercial nonionic surfactants based on ethoxylated lauryl ether (Ultrol line), by the phase inversion temperature (PIT) method. The orange oil/surfactant/water dispersions were prepared at different HLB values, by varying the concentrations of the surfactants as well as the concentration of the oil phase. The stability of the o/w nanoemulsions and the size distribution of the dispersed particles in these systems in general depended on the concentration of the oil phase used: the emulsions prepared with an oil phase of 14 wt% had smaller droplet size in the dispersed phase than the emulsions prepared in the presence of oil phases of 20 and 30 wt%. The nanoemulsions prepared with pure surfactants were more stable in the presence of Ultrol L60, but the surfactants' cloud point had a strong influence on the stability of the emulsions formed when this was very near room temperature. Because of this, we prepared systems containing mixtures of surfactants. Among these systems, the most stable nanoemulsions were those prepared with a Ultrol L100/Ultrol L20 mixture with HLB of 12.40. This behavior can be attributed to the complete solubilization in mixed micelles of the more hydrophobic surfactant.

Application of Oil/Water Nanoemulsions as a New Alternative to Demulsify Crude Oil

“…Among the advantages of nanoemulsions are their low interfacial tension, large interfacial area, kinetic stability due to the small size of the dispersed droplets (10 to 100 nanometers), and their high solubility in organic compounds, as shown in previous studies (10,11).…”

“…Besides this, the quantity of surfactant utilized to reduce the interfacial tension of the system is minimal, in the range of 10 to 12% of the total mass of the mixture, and additionally the masses of oil used in the process of forming nanoemulsions are small (5 to 30%) (10)(11)(12)(13). Finally, nanoemulsions generally maintain their small droplet size even under high dilution.…”

Development and Evaluation of Solbrax-Water Nanoemulsions for Removal of Oil from Sand

“…Nanoemulsions by the PIT Method. According to Souza et al [22], the process of preparing oil/water nanoemulsions by the PIT method consists of heating the system to temperatures near the PIT followed by rapid cooling, and the condition for nanoemulsion formation is the complete solubilization of the surfactant in the oil.…”

Facile synthesis of novel nanocurcuminoids–sacha inchi oil using the phase inversion temperature method: Characterization and antioxidant activity

“…Previous works showed that low‐energy methods have more advantages than high‐energy methods due to their easy and straightforward characteristics (Solè et al., 2006). Different kinds of approaches to low energy have been developed to form nanoemulsions, including spontaneous emulsification (SE) (Chang & McClements, 2014), emulsion inversion point (EIP), phase inversion temperature (PIT) (Souza et al., 2011; Su & Zhong, 2016), phase inversion composition (PIC) (Akhtar et al., 2012), and Z ‐methods (Chang & McClements, 2014; Jintapattanakit, 2018).…”