Effect of water on foaming properties of diglycerol fatty acid ester-oil systems

We have studied the effect of added water on the nonaqueous foaming properties of diglycerol fatty acid ester nonionic surfactant systems. Diglycerol monomyristate (designated as DGM) could not foam in nonpolar oils squalane and hexadecane at normal room temperature. Nevertheless, addition of a small amount of water induces a dramatic change in foaming properties. Both the foamability and foam stability increases with the amount of added water within the studied concentration range. Phase behavior study showed that in the dilute regions there is dispersion of solid surfactant in the aforementioned oils in the DGM systems. The particle size of the dispersed solid phase was found to be several tens of microns in the water free system, and hence it tends to coagulate and precipitate. In the case of shorter alkyl chain length, diglycerol monolaurate (DGL) surfactant-oil systems, dispersion of lamellar liquid crystal (Lalpha) is observed at room temperature, and the poor foaming properties were attributed to the large particle size of the liquid crystal. In both the DGL and DGM-oil systems, we observed a tendency of the particle size to decrease with the increasing concentration of added water. At higher temperature, the solid surfactant transforms to lamellar liquid crystal phase, and foaming is improved in the DGM/squalane system. Foams are stable for several minutes. Judging from the foaming test and particle size distribution data it can be concluded that the poor foaming in the diglycerol fatty acid esters-oil systems may possibly be due to bigger particle size, which causes precipitation. Addition of water results in the dispersion of smaller particles and improves the foaming behavior.