Preparation of Water-in-Hexane Nanoemulsions Using Low Energy Emulsification Method

Abstract

Abstract Formation of water-in-hexane nanoemulsions has been studied in system water/(Brij 30/Span 80) mixed surfactant/hexane system via a low energy emulsification method: stepwise addition of water to a solution of mixed surfactants in hexane. The influence of surfactant concentration, water content, hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB) and dynamic interfacial tension on the stability of the prepared nanoemulsions has been studied. The obtained average droplet size obtained was between 39 and 204 nm, depending on the surfactant concentrations and the water contents. The main destabilization mechanism of the systems was found to be Ostwald ripining. Also, the results obtained showed that the dynamic interfacial tension, measured by capillary pressure tensiometry, shows very low values of interfacial tension (γ) for the (Brij 30/Span 80) mixed surfactant with HLB = 9.3 as compared to the single surfactants. Keywords: Dynamic interfacial tensionsemulsificationnanoemulsion