Abstract
This paper describes the specific properties of an emulsion which was prepared with “soft hydrophilic nanoparticles” instead of an ordinary surfactant. Since the emulsion is stabilized by the hydrophilic nanoparticles which are thermodynamically irreversibly attached to the oil droplets' surface, the emulsion has been named the “three-phase emulsification method” to distinguish it from conventional emulsions. Three-phase emulsion is different from conventional emulsion in many ways. For example, not only the case of adding salt or acid, the emulsion may be diluted or concentrated is stable. Further, the particle size of the emulsion can be prepared anywhere from 100 nm; it can also be prepared from sizes that cause the Rayleigh scattering to show a structural color to a size of several tens of microns. Furthermore, since the three-phase emulsion has a structure which holds the hydrophilic nanoparticles onto the oil droplets, it can be seen that three-phase emulsion is hydrophilic in comparison with the conventional emulsion. Therefore, the three-phase emulsion called a “water retention emulsion”, showing that it is possible to produce an emulsion having high wettability when applied to cosmetics.
