How does emulsifier work

Adhesion to natural teeth does not occur easily because the enamel is hydrophilic and always wet, whereas the adhesion to artificial teeth, occurs easily. We can prevent adhesion by wetting the surface of chewing gum by adding emulsifier. Monoglycerides of middle chain fatty acid and some polyglycerol esters have specific bacteriostatic effects, and are used as bacteriostatic agents. They are typically used in hot vendor drinks, flour paste, and canned soup. Fresh bread is soft, but it becomes elastic and hardens over time.

Starch particles consist of spherical shaped amylopectine and amylose. Raw starch called beta-starch is insoluble in water. But when heated to a certain temperature, the starch absorbs water and changes into the crystalline form of alpha-starch. Amylose gets hard easily with cooling and amylopectin becomes hard gradually with time. The immediate hardening of bread by cooling is mainly due to the change of amylose.

Amylose changes to a helix structure, a kind of spiral structure by heating. If monoglycerides are introduced, they can be anchored into the helix structure. Since the anchoring does not change even after cooling, softness is maintained.

This function is also utilized for instant mashed potatoes, noodles and rice. Wheat flour contains protein called gluten which takes the shape of a mesh-like structured when mixed with water. This wheat flour and water based dough is filled with carbon dioxide produced by fermentation and steam generated during baking, which produces raised bread.

When the gluten content is small, the dough only rises a little. This part of the molecule is called hydro phobic which means water fearing. The picture below shows the hydrophilic head and the hydro phobic tail of an emulsifier molecule. The emulsifier molecule dissolves with its head in the water and its tail in the oil droplet.

A large number of emulsifier molecules are needed to keep the oil droplet dispersed in the water for a long time. The picture above shows how the emulsifier molecules position themselves to make an oil droplet more stable. Links Revision Questions. Multilayer emulsions consist of oil droplets coated with an emulsifier plus one or more biopolymer layers, dispersed in an aqueous solution.

The emulsifier is typically electrically charged, and the polymer layer s have opposite charges that attract them to the surface of the oil droplet.

According to McClements, multilayer emulsions tend to have better physical stability than single-layer emulsions through fluctuations in pH, ionic strength, temperature, freezing and thawing, and dehydration. In addition, researchers can design multilayer emulsions to control their breakdown in the gastrointestinal tract. Most personal care products, including lotions, creams, shampoos, and conditioners, are emulsions.

Common emulsifiers for personal care products include ethoxylated alcohols, carboxylates, sodium isethionate, glycerol monostearate, cetyl alcohol, stearyl alcohol, and silicone emulsifiers such as dimethicones. Synthetic emulsifiers such as ethoxylated alcohols and their naturally derived counterparts have identical structures, performance, and biodegradation.

Juan Mateu, technical director at JEEN International in Fairfield, New Jersey, USA, says that there has been a move away from synthetic ethoxylated alcohols in recent years due to worries about residual 1,4-dioxane, a suspected carcinogen that is a by-product in their manufacture.

Naturally derived glucosides have been suggested as replacements for some applications. Prior to Jeesperse, manufacturers had to heat emulsifiers in the oil phase to melt them, and then add the melted emulsifier to the aqueous phase and cool the emulsion at a controlled rate down to room temperature.

In contrast, Jeesperse allows the emulsion to be made in a single kettle at room temperature, resulting in significant savings of money and time. The secret ingredients in Jeesperse products are polyelectrolytes, such as sodium polyacrylate. The polyelectrolytes are polar molecules that can induce polarity in nonpolar waxes, enabling them to dissolve in cold water a polar solvent. Mateu says that in the lab, he can make an emulsion with the cold process in about 20 minutes, as opposed to several hours of mixing, heating, and cooling with the conventional process.

A short video demonstrating the cold-process formulation of a lotion with a Jeesperse emulsifier. Many household cleaners and laundry detergents contain surfactants that emulsify oily dirt particles so that they can be diluted and washed away. Ethoxylated alcohols are a common ingredient of laundry detergents. Many detergents contain a blend of nonionic and anionic emulsifiers to lift stains out of textiles.

According to Sabatini, removing triglycerides such as fats, bacon grease, and vegetable oils from fabrics is particularly challenging. His lab has shown that extended surfactants, which are surfactants with intermediate polarity groups e. Emulsifiers allow metalworkers to make use of both the lubricating properties of oils and the cooling capabilities of water. Anionic and nonionic emulsifiers are often used together in metalworking fluids. Cationic emulsifiers are rarely used because they are unstable in the alkaline solutions pH 8—9.

Emulsions and microemulsions have been applied to environmental technologies such as subsurface remediation and biofuel production. For example, when oil or gas is spilled, the oil becomes trapped in pores in the soil and rock. In , Sabatini and several colleagues founded a company called Surbec Environmental, LLC, to implement this technology. Since then, Surbec has assisted with the environmental cleanup of multiple sites in the United States and abroad.

Examples include a gas station with a leaky underground tank and a military site contaminated with jet fuel. Sabatini has also applied his emulsions research to the more efficient production of biofuel.

Biodiesel is a vegetable oil, such as soybean oil, that has been chemically modified through a transesterification reaction to reduce its viscosity. As it turns out, microemulsification of vegetable oils can reduce viscosity without the need for the transesterification reaction. This would save time and allow more of the raw material to be used as fuel.

However, Sabatini notes that the research is still in its early stages. Although humans have been making emulsions for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, we are only now beginning to appreciate their diverse applications in many fields.

Complex emulsions, such as microemulsions and multilayer emulsions, promise to further expand the repertoire of applications, particularly in emerging areas such as functional foods and biodiesel production. Now if only we could find an emulsifier for that difficult coworker.

She has a Ph. The terms surfactant, emulsifier, and detergent are often used interchangeably, but there are distinctions. Surfactant is the broadest term: Both emulsifiers and detergents are surfactants.