Phase Inversions in Emulsions Probed by Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy

Abstract

We report the electrical behavior of emulsions (water/toluene/triton X-100) characterized by double phase inversion induced by temperature. The phase inversions in the continuous media were easily detected from the measurement of slope in the real part of impedance at low frequencies (1Hz < f < 1 MHz) by the use of parameters such as double layer capacitance and charge-transfer resistance (obtained from fitting of data using modified Randles circuit) allowing the detection of an additional phase transition in the limit of low temperature (T < 20°C) since the additional processes such as diffusion can be conveniently characterized.

Keywords:

• Droplets
• electrical properties
• emulsion
• modified randles circuit
• phase inversion

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank CNPq, FAPESB, CAPES, and FINEP.