Abstract
Recently, amphiphilic polymers have come to actual use as an emulsifying agent in oil industries. They can provide stability and reduce an amount of low-molecular-weight surfactants. They stabilize emulsions by “adsorption at an oil and water interface” and/or “associating thickening”. This overview summarizes several types of polymeric emulsifier and emulsification mechanism mainly in cosmetic field and describes recent studies of a new water-soluble amphiphilic polysaccharide HHM-HEC. HHM-HEC formed a gel through aggregation of hydrophobic moieties in water and stabilized O/W emulsions by the associative thickening mechanism.
