Dispersion behavior of oleic acid in aqueous media: from micelles to emulsions

 Dispersion behavior of aqueous solutions containing oleic acid (RH), sodium oleate (R^-Na⁺), and NaCl was investigated by turbidity and dynamic light-scattering measurements. Changes of the size of scattering particles in solution composed of 1 mM oleic acid and 100 mM NaCl were traced as a function of the degree of ionization α, in terms of radius of the equivalent hydrodynamic sphere. Large associated micelles with a radius of 30 nm appeared by a slight decline of α and existed at α higher than 0.75. They were responsible for the three-phase equilibrium (solution, micelle and aggregated micelle, and acid–soap, (R^-Na⁺)₃RH) characterized by a constant pH of 9.75. The appearance of a new phase, (R^-Na⁺)₃RH, contributed to increase both the turbidity and averaged scattering particle size. As the breakdown of the three-phase equilibrium, radius of scattering particles increased significantly. Finally, oleic acid oil droplets were separated from aqueous phase at low α. When the system was buffered by tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris), scattering particles with a weight-averaged hydrodynamic radius of 75 nm existed in a wide range of α from 0.85 to 0.65. In Tris buffered solution, turbidity formation was induced by the increase in the number of aggregated particles. Received: 12 November 1996 Accepted: 4 April 1997