AGGREGATION BEHAVIOR OF INTERFACIAL MATERIAL STUDIED BY SMALL-ANGLE X-RAY SCATTERING

The oil interfacial material (IM) is a fraction of substances expected to be responsible for forming w/o emulsions due to their adsorption at the oil-water interface1. This study seeks to determine whether IM can aggregate forming colloidal particles to promote emulsion stabilization, as found in Pickering emulsions. Colloidal characterization of the crude oil aggregates to compare with the results of oil without IM will allow us to find the contribution of IM in the oil aggregates. For that, IM was extracted from three oils and characterized in terms of chemical composition and by Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS). IM formed particles of approximately 80 nm in model solvent (toluene 43%, n-pentane 31%, n-octanol 26%). IM fractions have a chemical structure suitable for self-assembly and interaction with oil aggregates, and we find that removing IM increases stability in oil/water emulsions.