Rheological properties and structures of cationic surfactants and fatty alcohol emulsions: effect of surfactant chain length and concentration

 Rheological and optical properties of cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC)/fatty alcohol (FA), behenyltrimethylammonium chloride (BTAC)/FA and CTAC/FA/hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) emulsions have been studied with particular emphases on the effects of FA content, the difference in the chain length of the hydrophobic groups between CTAC and BTAC, and the addition of a water soluble polymer, HEC. The effects of the FA content are to accelerate the structure development during the aging period and to increase the storage modulus, the yield stress, and the zero-shear-rate viscosity in the three emulsion systems investigated. At a low FA content of 2% w/w, lamellar and vesicular aggregates and isolated multilamellar vesicles can be observed in the CTAC/FA and BTAC/FA emulsions, respectively. At a high FA content of 6% w/w or with an excess of FA present, networklike structures and sunflower-like structures form, respectively, instead, inducing a higher entanglement storage modulus and a higher yield stress relative to those emulsions with a low FA content. The effect of adding HEC to the CTAC/FA emulsion is to reduce the entanglement storage modulus and the yield stress, consistent with the optical observation that the presence of the polymer disrupts the formations of lamella and vesicular aggregates and network structures.