What Does Chemical Emulsion Mean
We explain what a chemical emulsion is, what its phases are, how it is classified and what examples we find in everyday life.
What is an emulsion?
By chemical emulsion or simply emulsion is understood to be the more or less homogeneous union of two immiscible liquids , that is, they do not mix completely with each other. Emulsions consist of the dispersion of one liquid in another, both in different liquid phases.
They form what is ordinarily known as a colloid . Although these two terms are used interchangeably, emulsions differ from other colloids because they are always composed of liquid phases . These two phases that make up an emulsion are always different and are classified as:
- Continuous phase. The phase that is predominant over the other, that is, that within which one of the liquids that make up the emulsion is dispersed. It is also called the "dispersing phase".
- Dispersed phase. The phase that is minority compared to the other, that is, that is dispersed within the dispersant phase.
Due to different chemical phenomena and physical , emulsions always tend to the colored white, unless they are dilute emulsions (then tending to blue) or concentrated (tending to yellow). The two are distinguished from the concentration gradient of one phase to the other.
Many times an emulsion is formed due to the presence of emulsifying substances , that is, particles that facilitate or promote the formation of emulsions between substances that would ordinarily find it much more difficult to do so. In the same way, an emulsifier or emulsifier is a substance that stabilizes this type of mixture by preventing its phases from dispersing, acting as a binder material. Emulsions can be of different types:
- Direct emulsions. Emulsions that combine a lipophilic dispersed phase (attracted to fats ) and a hydrophilic continuous phase (attracted to water ).
- Inverse emulsions. Emulsions that combine a hydrophilic dispersed phase and a lipophilic continuous phase, that is, the reverse of the direct ones.
- Multiple emulsions. Emulsions that have an inverse emulsion as the dispersed phase and an aqueous liquid as the continuous phase.
It can serve you: Homogeneous mixture
Examples of chemical emulsions
Some common and everyday emulsions are:
- Milk. Water and fat emulsion
- The Mayo. Water and oil emulsion.
- The vinaigrette sauce. Oil and vinegar emulsion.
- Oil . Hydrocarbon emulsion.
- The icecream. Almost frozen milk and water emulsion.
- The butter. Milk and oil emulsion.
- Bitumen or asphalt. Hydrocarbon emulsion.
Continue with: Methods of separating mixtures