Long-Term Stability of n-Alkane-in-Water Pickering Nanoemulsions: Effect of Aqueous Solubility of Droplet Phase on Ostwald Ripening.

ABSTRACT: High-pressure microfluidization is used to prepare a series of oil-in-water Pickering nanoemulsions using sterically-stabilized diblock copolymer nanoparticles as the Pickering emulsifier. The droplet phase comprised either n-octane, n-decane, n-dodecane, or n-tetradecane. This series of oils enabled the effect of aqueous solubility on Ostwald ripening to be studied, which is the primary instability mechanism for such nanoemulsions. Analytical centrifugation (LUMiSizer instrument) was used to evaluate the long-term stability of these Pickering nanoemulsions over time scales of weeks/months. This technique enables convenient quantification of the fraction of growing oil droplets and confirmed that using n-octane (aqueous solubility = 0.66 mg dm^-3 at 20 °C) leads to instability ev

SUBMITTER: Thompson KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6085727 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature