Formation and properties of mini-emulsions formed by microemulsions dilution

Mini-emulsions have been formed in quaternary systems water/hexanol/sodium dodecyl sulfate/decane by dilution of a microemulsion with an excess of water. We have investigated systematically the effect of composition variables in the droplet size and Ostwald Ripening rate. This droplet size has been investigated by using dynamic light scattering of samples submitted to further dilution in water. According to the dynamic light scattering results, the initial droplet size depends on the initial microemulsion water content, the larger the initial water concentration, the smaller the initial droplet size. This is probably related to the structure of the initial phase. The rate of Ostwald Ripening depends on the final surfactant concentration as expected for differences in interfacial tension. At high surfactant and dispersed phase contents, instability due to flocculation has been observed. Other experiments in which a fifth component (a more hydrophobic oil) was added to slow down Ostwald Ripening showed an initial droplet size increasing comparable to the systems without additive but after a relatively long time of approximately 2 h, a decrease was observed.