Emulsions are widely used in petroleum, food, and pharmaceutical industries. They are constantly broken and reformulated during manufacturing procedures. Hence, a fundamental understanding of detergent molecules transferring between emulsion droplets is important for optimizing their physical property and stability. However, studying detergent transfer between emulsion droplets remains challenging due to a lack of in situ surface-specific techniques. Here, we have developed a method using second harmonic generation (SHG) and a detergent probe molecule, namely MG-octyl. The detergent probe molecule contains an octyl chain and a charged headgroup that is the same as malachite green (MG) known to be effective in generating SHG signals. We have demonstrated that the transfer of MG-octyl between the n-tetradecane/water emulsion particles could be observed in situ and in real time. Our results support that the SHG method can be further applied to examine various factors controlling the kinetics of detergent transferring between emulsion droplets.

Application of second harmonic generation spectroscopy to probe kinetics of detergent molecules transferring between emulsion droplets

242nd National Meeting (2011)

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