Study of the State of Water and Oil in Frozen Emulsions Using Time Domain NMR

Here T(1) and T(2)(*) relaxation time measurements by low-field NMR have been used to quantify the state of oil and water in frozen emulsions. Water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsions have been studied. A discrete method (NLREG program) and a continuous method (CONTIN program) have been used to analyze the FID and inversion-recovery relaxation curves. The FID signal (T(2)(*)) analysis allowed us to calculate the global solid-intermediate-liquid ratio, and the state of the solid and liquid phases was determined by the T(1) values. Thus we have been able to show that the major part of water ( approximately 99%) is in a solid state in such emulsions (average droplet diameter of about 1.5 &mgr;m). This result was confirmed by the study of a solid paraffin-Span 80-water emulsion and a heavy water-caseinate-triolein emulsion. These first results have shown the interest of this new method for the study of the state of water and oil in frozen emulsions. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.