Dear all, I am working on a bacteria with good demulsification properties on Water-based plastic emulsions. I have found many papers on the demulsification of oil in water emulsions, where the oil and water have a clear and measurable separation layer. They used an equation.
Demulsification ratio=((oil volume + water volume)/original emulsion volume+added emulsifier volume))*100
In the demulsification of polymers, the polymer settles in the bottom like coagulation/flocculation. So, how can we measure demulsification in that scenario? Can I use the equation of flocculation instead? thank you
Dear Shehbas,
I am not sure if I understand your question. An emulsion is a mixture of two liquids, while coagulated polymers are solids. They would form a suspension, not an emulsion. Solids don't change their shape as easily as liquids, so they cannot reduce their surface energy that effectively.
Shehbas,
You can provide (make) a defination of Demulsification ratio because this is not a widely used concenpt, and I guess there is no given and widely accepted definition. My opinion is that you describe well the definition. I believe this De-emulsification ratio can be defined as follow, it is reasonable and should be accepted by many readers:
1. you konw the solid of your emulsion (latex if the emuslified material is a polymer), it is easy to get the total amount of the emulsified polymer in your system, assign it as "m".
2. After de-emulsification, you get part of the polymer latex destabilized, i.e. part of the polymer flocculated at bottom of the container. Assign it as "m1" (the amount remains stable, not de-emulsified is m2=m-m1).
3. Naturally, the de-emulsification can be defined as m1/m, which is the de-emulsication % of the polymer in the emulsion (latex), or de-emulsification ratio.
This is easy to understand, and easy to be accepted for people working in the field.
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