Preparation of highly monodisperse W/O emulsions with hydrophobically modified SPG membranes

Experimental investigations on the hydrophobic modification of SPG membranes and the preparation of monodisperse W/O (water-in-oil) emulsions using the modified membranes were carried out. Effects of the osmotic pressure of disperse phase, the average pore size of membranes, emulsifier concentrations in continuous phase and the transmembrane pressure on the average size, size distribution and size dispersion coefficient of emulsions were systematically studied. The stability of W/O emulsions was also investigated. The results showed that SPG membranes took on excellent hydrophobicity through the modification by silane coupler reagent (octyltriethoxysilane) or by silicone resin (polymethylsilsesquioxane). Monodisperse W/O emulsions with size dispersion coefficient of about 0.25, which meant high monodispersity, were successfully prepared by using the hydrophobically modified SPG membranes with average pore sizes of 1.8, 2.0, 2.5, 4.8 and 11.1 microm. When the osmotic pressure was lower than 0.855 MPa, the average size of emulsions was gradually increased while the size dispersion coefficient delta gradually decreased with the osmotic pressure; when the osmotic pressure was higher than 0.855 MPa, both the coefficients kept unvarying. When kerosene was saturated with disperse phase in advance, the average size of emulsions became larger and the monodispersity of emulsions was slightly better than that prepared using unsaturated kerosene. The smaller the pore size of SPG membranes was, the better the monodispersity of the W/O emulsions. The average size and size dispersion coefficient delta were nearly independent on the emulsifier concentrations when the PGPR concentration was in the range from 0.5 to 5.0 wt%, whereas both of them slightly increased as the PGPR concentration was below 0.5 wt%. The effect of the transmembrane pressure on size distributions was slight. Both the average size and size dispersion coefficient delta slightly increased to some extent with the increase of the transmembrane pressure in the experimental range. The stability of the W/O emulsions was dependent on the storage time. The mean size of W/O emulsions decreased gradually with the increase of storage time at the first 35 days, and then kept constant; while the size dispersion coefficient of W/O emulsions was nearly not changed.