Surfactant-free "emulsions" generated by freeze-thaw.
The stability ofsurfactantless dispersions of surface chemically pure alkanes was studied in the presence and absence of dissolved gas. It was found that simply freezing and thawing a sample of oil and water results in a dispersion. A mechanism based on fingering of the insoluble oil into the aqueous phase, due to local surface tension gradients, followed by separation and nucleation into droplets, is proposed to account for this observation.
Burnett
Gary R
GR
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK.
Atkin
Rob
R
Hicks
Stuart
S
Eastoe
Julian
J