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Updated: May 26, 2026

Water in Oil Emulsions: A New System for Assembling Water-soluble Chlorophyll-binding Proteins with Hydrophobic Pigments
Published on: March 21, 2016
Water-in-trichloroethylene emulsions stabilized by uniform carbon microspheres
Pradeep Venkataraman1, Bhanukiran Sunkara, J E St Dennis
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, USA.
Abstract:
Uniform hard carbon spheres (HCS), synthesized by the hydrothermal decomposition of sucrose followed by pyrolysis, are effective at stabilizing water-in-trichloroethylene (TCE) emulsions. The irreversible adsorption of carbon particles at the TCE-water interface resulting in the formation of a monolayer around the water droplet in the emulsion phase is identified as the key reason for emulsion stability. Cryogenic scanning electron microscopy was used to image the assembly of carbon particles clearly at the TCE-water interface and the formation of bilayers in regions of droplet-droplet contact. The results of this study have potential implications to the subsurface injection of carbon submicrometer particles containing zero-valent iron nanoparticles to treat pools of chlorinated hydrocarbons that are sequestered in fractured bedrock.
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