Emulsions Lab Report

The main purpose of this lab is to explain what emulsifiers and emulsions are and how emulsifiers affect emulsion stability.

An emulsion is a mix of to or more liquids that usually do not mix together. One liquid is evenly dispersed in small droplets throughout the other liquid. Many emulsions contain water as one of the phases. There are two different types of emulsions. One type of emulsion contains oil droplets that are dispersed within water. It is considered oil in water emulsion. The other type of emulsion is water in oil, which has droplets of water evenly dispersed within oil.
There are emulsions that are called microemulsions and nanoemulsions. They are almost see-through, because the sizes of the droplets within the emulsion are
It is a great emulsifier and has some very unique properties. When it is part of a mixture like an emulsion, it has the ability to thicken when there is no force applied to it. Once a force is a is applied to the mixture, its viscosity decreases and the liquid becomes thinner. This allows it to rest un-separated as a salad dressing and still be poured easily. Whey is a wonderfully scented byproduct of cheese making that turns out to be great as an emulsifier. The whey proteins keep emulsions from separating. Eggs are also great emulsifiers, because they contain proteins that can slow down the phase separation rate of emulsions. Sugar has the ability to act as an
Not all of the foods that are based on emulsions contain emulsifiers. As a normal grocery store customer walks by the assorted salad dressings, they might notice that some dressings have oil floating above the other ingredients. These dressings and most likely advice you to shake well before use. Milk has proteins that are great for emulsions. Ranch dressing is an emulsion that relies on those proteins to stay un-separated.

In the medical department, many medicines rely on emulsions and long lasting emulsifiers. This is where microemulsions are used in vaccines for infections and diseases. The Small droplets of oil within an emulsions forms bonds with the outer membrane of viruses and bacteria and destroys the cell membranes. This is used to effectively kill the Viruses and bacteria without affecting the patient or animal being treated. The emulsions are also used as great cleaners that use the same process listed above to kill harmful pathogens.
Firefighters use emulsifiers to combat blazes using special chemicals. Emulsifier’s are able to trap fuel vapors within the air in their liquid phase so they are unable to ignite and burn. These types of fire fighting chemicals are only able to fight fires caused by thin fuel spills. They do not work well against large volume fuel spills, because the amount of emulsifier needed to trap that much fuel would be