Emulsion rheology and properties of polymerized high internal phase emulsions

High internal phase emulsions are highly concentrated emulsion systems consisting of a large volume of dispersed phase above 0.74. The rheological properties of high internal phase water-in-oil emulsions were measured conducting steady shear, oscillatory shear and creep/recovery experiments. It was found that the yield stress is inversely proportional to the drop size with the exponent of values between 1 and 2. Since the oil phase contains monomeric species, microcellular foams can easily be prepared from high internal phase emulsions. In this study, the microcellular foams combining a couple of thickeners into the conventional formulation of styrene and water system were investigated to understand the effect of viscosity ratio on cell size. Cell size variation on thickener concentration could be explained by a dimensional analysis between the capillary number and the viscosity ratio. Compression properties of foam are important end use properties in many practical applications. Crush strength and Young's modulus of microcellular foams polymerized from high internal phase emulsions were measured and compared from compression tests. Of the foams tested in this study, the foam prepared from the organoclay having reactive group as an oil phase thickener showed outstanding compression properties.