Emulsifiers And Co-Emulsifiers: Creation Of Emulsion A Boon For Many Indsutries

As a child, you must have witnessed the common and interesting phenomenon of oil floating on the water. You must have also tried your best to mix both of them well either by stirring or shaking it in a vessel, but it kind of never works. After shaking or stirring for a while it might seem that both of them are mixed, but wait and you will see that it is not so. The technical explanation behind this is the difference in density of water and oil. Oil being much lighter than water floats on it and does not end up getting mixed. But there are some agents and chemicals that one can use to mix such fluids. This article discusses such chemicals or agents, their usage and routinely availability, expansion of such market through multiple industries, and some other interesting specifics.

• What Are Emulsifiers And Co-Emulsifiers?

  If you have not tried of shaking or mixing water and oil, then go and do so now. You will find that after shaking for a while there will be the formation of droplets and once these droplets disperse you will find that nothing is blended. For this purpose, we make use of emulsifiers. When you add an emulsifier to a mixture of water oil and shake it, then the droplets so formed remain suspended in it, thus leading to the formation of emulsions. On the same note, co-emulsifiers have the same function. They also help in the suspension of oil molecules in the water and vice-versa. But the only difference between emulsifiers and co-emulsifiers is that the emulsion obtained by the mixing of co-emulsifiers is far more chemically stable when compared to the one obtained by emulsifiers.

• Chemical Structure And Important Industrial Usages

  The fundamental structure of emulsifying or co-emulsifying agent is the same and it is as follows:

  The molecules of emulsifying agents contain two ends, one is hydrophobic which is usually a long chain of fatty acids and the other is the hydrophilic part which can be either charged or not. The hydrophobic end of the chain helps in the dispersion of oil droplets. While the hydrophilic end helps in the dispersion of water droplets. These combine together and form a chemically stable emulsion.

  The emulsion obtained is uniform throughout and also helps in the prevention of large ice crystals in products like ice cream.

  One of the major use of both emulsifiers and co-emulsifiers is in the food industry and some the most common food products include ice cream, salad dressing, margarine. These are also used in the cosmetic, personal care, and pharmaceutical industries. Apart from helping the formation of emulsions, emulsifiers and co-emulsifier also help in prolonging the life of a product. Additionally following are some other uses –

  Emulsifiers are used as fire fighting agents.

  These are also used in the process of synthesizing by chemical means.

  Nanoemulsions are used for the purpose of killing microbes. A common example of nanoemulsions is soybean oil.

  Emulsions are also used for carrying vaccines to kills various microbes of our body. The type of emulsion that is used for this purpose is known as microemulsions.

The Need Of Emulsification

Don’t be confused between the terms emulsifier and emulsification. Emulsification is the process of adding the emulsifiers to two immiscible liquids. Keeping this aid, the following are the main goal behind the process of emulsification –

1. First and foremost goal of emulsifiers is to create physiochemical stability in a substance. The process of emulsification helps in the determination of the structure of the batter in which is to be used.
2. And secondly, it helps in the creation of a sensory property in the product such as flavor, noise, texture and so. This is the main reason why emulsifiers are widely used in the food industry than any other.

Emulsifiers And Your Personal Care Drawer

As stated above that emulsifiers are also widely used in the cosmetics and personal care industry. There are subsets of emulsifiers on the basis of charge present on them. And these subsets have different effects on your skin.

1. Cationic Emulsifiers – These are positively charged emulsifiers and binds to keratin which is present on the outer layer of your skin. Because of the fact that they bind to the outer layer of the skin, these emulsifiers can potentially cause skin irritation and other sorts of minor skin infections.
2. Anionic Emulsifiers – These emulsifiers are negatively charged and have the capacity to greatly disrupt the lipid and protein constituent of your skin. Though over years, skin experts have come up with some other milder and similar anionic emulsifiers.
3. Non-ionic emulsifiers- Studies have pointed out that these non-charged kinds of emulsifiers are not so harmful to your skin when compared to the other two types. But still, these disturb the lipid of your skin and might lead to excessive water loss from your skin.

Things To Consider When Opting For An Emulsifier And Other Specifics

The previous decade saw a constant and consistent rising demand of almost all the major industries. But the recent few years have seen a major demand from the food and skincare industry. This is why the global market size of the emulsifiers is forecasted to reach USD 8.44 billion by the end of 2021. The compound annual growth rate is predicted to be 6.8%. Emulsifiers and Co-emulsifiers market shows positive growth in near future.

Besides, if you are going to an emulsifier then the following are the things you might want to consider –

1. Make sure you check the electrical charge of the emulsifier that you opting for.
2. Every emulsifier has a different pH working range and if this is criteria is not satisfied then the emulsifiers you care using can become harmful.
3. Make sure that you check if the emulsifiers you are using is heat sensitive or not.

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