Hexagonal phase based gel-emulsion (O/H1 gel-emulsion): formation and rheology

The formation, stability, and rheological behavior of a hexagonal phase based gel-emulsion (O/H1 gel-emulsion) have been studied in water/C12EO8/hydrocarbon oil systems. A partial phase behavior study indicates that the oil nature has no effect on the phase sequences in the ternary phase diagram of water/C12EO8/oil systems but the domain size of the phases or the oil solubilization capacity considerably changes with oil nature. Excess oil is in equilibrium with the hexagonal phase (H1) in the ternary phase diagram in the H1+O region. The O/H1 gel-emulsion was prepared (formation) and kept at 25 degrees C to check stability. It has been found that the formation and stability of the O/H1 gel-emulsion depends on the oil nature. After 2 min observation (formation), the results show that short chain linear hydrocarbon oils (heptane, octane) are more apt to form a O/H1 gel-emulsion compared to long chain linear hydrocarbon oils (tetradecane, hexadecane), though the stability is not good enough in either system, that is, oil separates within 24 h. Nevertheless, the formation and stability of the O/H1 gel-emulsion is appreciably increased in squalane and liquid paraffin. It is surmised that the high transition temperature of the H1+O phase and the presence of a bicontinuous cubic phase (V1) might hamper the formation of a gel-emulsion. It has been pointed out that the solubilization of oil in the H1 phase could be related to emulsion stability. On the other hand, the oil nature has little or no effect on the formation and stability of a cubic phase based gel-emulsion (O/I1 gel-emulsion). From rheological measurements, it has found that the rheogram of the O/H1 gel-emulsion indicates gel-type structure and shows shear thinning behavior similar to the case of the O/I1 gel-emulsion. Rheological data infer that the O/I1 gel-emulsion is more viscous than the O/H1 gel-emulsion at room temperature but the O/H1 gel-emulsion shows consistency at elevated temperature.