Question

With the aid of a diagram if required, show how cetostearyl alcohol in concert with a non-ionic surfactant stabilises an emulsion. This question has been previously posted though did not answer the question properly

Answer 1

Cetostearyl alcohol is a mixture of two alcohol that come from vegetable oil. the two alchola are:cetyl and steryl alcohol which come under the category of fatty alcohol. It is a white,waxy,solid material which is souble in oil and insoluble in water hence used in pharamcetical and cosmetic industry to make lotion creams etc. it is mostly used as an emulsion stabliser so now it is one of the common ways to give creams and bases a long term stability. It has been reported that addition od cetyl alcohol increases emulsion by formation of intermolecular complex between water-oil interface. the interfacial viscocity between a surfactant and cetostearyl alcohol makes the surfactant form a monolayer of alcohol at the oil-water interface hence increasing the viscocity. So, the rate of separation of oil from water stabilises the emulsion through adsorption of alochol at oil-water interface.

(sorry there is nosuch diagram to explain the same)