Mechanical and electrochemical effects on surface convection and on emulsification new criteria

Theoretical and experimental studies of surface instability for charged and polarized interfaces between two immiscible liquids are reviewed. A linear analysis of stability shows the role of mechanical and electrochemical para meters for the onset of interfacial convection. Three cases are studied: 1) For the restored Boltzman distribution in bulk phases, the stability is only governed by the interfacial tension through the composition between mechano-chemicaland electrical contributions to the surface free energy; 2) for the non-restored Boltzman distribution, the stability is also governed by the discontinuity of mechanical quantities (density-viscosity) associated with the discontinuity of electrochemical and electrical quantities (dielectric constant-solute concentration-diffusion coefficient, potential drop); and 3) for concentrated charged and dipolar monolayers, the convection criteria of stability are directly related to the discontinuity of mechanical quantities (density-viscosity) associated with the discontinuity of electrochemical quantities (dielectric constant).Additional experiments on emilsification and demulsification were performed in order to verify this last theoretical prediction.