Energy barrier in dense W/O emulsions

A study has been made of the interactions between non-deformed charged spherical droplets in concentrate emulsions. on Albers–Overbeek model, which was restricted to electrostatic effects, we calculate the repulsive interaction energy by taking also into account a quantity β that depends on the distance between the surfaces of the droplets and their sizes. Its meaning lies in the fact that, when particles come into each otherʹs field, the fields lose their spherical symmetry. w that in concentrate emulsions, the high volume fraction is responsible for a decrease of the energy barrier. When reaching a maximum packing, the energy barrier equals zero. However, for medium dense emulsions our calculations show that the electrical repulsion increases with the volume fraction. In all cases the corrective term β decreases the repulsive energy. refined calculation, taking into account the van der Waals attraction leads also to a decrease, although low, of the height of the energy barrier. The analysis of this height shows its strong dependence on the thickness of the double layer and on the volume fraction: the thicker the double layer, the lower the volume fraction that causes the decrease of the height of the barrier.