Concentrated emulsions have direct applications in the energy, food, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries. Fundamental characterization of these systems is required to develop strategies that decrease the associated operating and treatment costs for managing these systems. This paper highlights the efforts underway at Oklahoma State University in using acoustic techniques for emulsion characterization, measurement of particle size distributions, and quantification of interfacial behavior for specific applications in the energy industry. Acoustic spectroscopy was chosen over other particle characterization techniques due to its unique ability to characterize concentrated systems without dilution. The acoustic technique utilizes sound waves and the attenuation coefficient to characterize particle size, zeta potential, and conductivity. This work explores the morphology and transient behavior of both conventional surfactant stabilized and solid stabilized emulsions. This work utilizes several model oils and is coupled with inflow microscopy to quantify droplet size distributions. In this work, the behavior of a non-ionic surfactant and hydrophobic nanoparticle in stabilizing emulsion is investigated for both water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsion types. Surface tension of select model systems will be presented through implementation of advanced interfacial tensiometry techniques. The drop size measurements coupled with surface rheology will lead to fundamental characterization of these concentrated emulsion systems.

Characterization of surfactant and nanoparticle stabilized concentrated emulsions using acoustic spectroscopy

248th National Meeting (2014)

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