The advantages of in situ surfactant generation for miniemulsions.

The stabilisation of miniemulsions using an in situ generated surfactant is presented. This surfactant, prepared from of a water-soluble base and an oil-soluble long chain acid was successfully used to create stable miniemulsions with up to 60 vol.-% organic phase. It is shown that the creation of a surface active species at the oil-water interface allowed stable miniemulsions to be generated more rapidly than when using conventional surfactant. In addition, polymerised miniemulsions exhibited less secondary nucleation when in situ surfactants were used.