Crystallization in Emulsions: A Thermo-Optical Method to Determine Single Crystallization Events in Droplet Clusters
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences, Section I: Food Process Engineering (LVT), Kaiserstr. 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
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Academic Editor: Andreas Håkansson
Processes 2016, 4(3), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr4030025
Received: 21 June 2016
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Revised: 28 July 2016
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Accepted: 29 July 2016
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Published: 11 August 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emulsification Processes)
Delivery systems with a solid dispersed phase can be produced in a melt emulsification process. For this, dispersed particles are melted, disrupted, and crystallized in a liquid continuous phase (melt emulsification). Different to bulk crystallization, droplets in oil-in-water emulsions show individual crystallization behavior, which differs from droplet to droplet. Therefore, emulsion droplets may form liquid, amorphous, and crystalline structures during the crystallization process. The resulting particle size, shape, and physical state influence the application properties of these colloidal systems and have to be known in formulation research. To characterize crystallization behavior of single droplets in micro emulsions (range 1 µm to several hundred µm), a direct thermo-optical method was developed. It allows simultaneous determination of size, size distribution, and morphology of single droplets within droplet clusters. As it is also possible to differentiate between liquid, amorphous, and crystalline structures, we introduce a crystallization index, CIi, in dispersions with a crystalline dispersed phase. Application of the thermo-optical approach on hexadecane-in-water model emulsion showed the ability of the method to detect single crystallization events of droplets within emulsion clusters, providing detailed information about crystallization processes in dispersions.
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Keywords:
melt emulsification; emulsion crystallization; thermo-optical colloid analysis; crystallization index
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MDPI and ACS Style
Abramov, S.; Ruppik, P.; Schuchmann, H.P. Crystallization in Emulsions: A Thermo-Optical Method to Determine Single Crystallization Events in Droplet Clusters. Processes 2016, 4, 25. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr4030025
AMA Style
Abramov S, Ruppik P, Schuchmann HP. Crystallization in Emulsions: A Thermo-Optical Method to Determine Single Crystallization Events in Droplet Clusters. Processes. 2016; 4(3):25. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr4030025
Chicago/Turabian StyleAbramov, Serghei, Patrick Ruppik, and Heike P. Schuchmann. 2016. "Crystallization in Emulsions: A Thermo-Optical Method to Determine Single Crystallization Events in Droplet Clusters" Processes 4, no. 3: 25. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr4030025
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