Preparation of positively charged oil/water nano-emulsions with a sub-PIT method

The phase inversion temperature (PIT) method is generally used to prepare nonionic surfactant stabilized nano-emulsions because of its low energy and surfactant consumption. The emulsion droplets are usually negatively charged because of the selective adsorption of OH(-) onto the droplet surfaces. In this work, positively charged oil/water nano-emulsions were prepared by adding a cationic surfactant to the system. The cationic molecules change the spontaneous curvature of the surfactant layers and raise the PIT above 100 °C. The PIT can be depressed by addition of NaBr, as shown by conductivity measurements and equilibrium phase behavior. Therefore, these nano-emulsions can be prepared by the PIT method. We found that the formation of the nano-emulsions did not require a cross-PIT cycle. The mechanism of the emulsification is the formation of mixed swollen micelles that can solubilize all the oil above a "clearing boundary", followed by a stir-quench to a temperature where these droplets become metastable emulsions. The zeta potential of the emulsion droplets can be easily tuned by varying the cationic surfactant concentrations. Due to electrosteric stabilization, the resulting nano-emulsions are highly stable, thus could find significant applications in areas such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food industries.