RESUMO
The hydrophobicity of surfactants has been described through different concepts used to guide the formulation of surfactant-water (SW) and surfactant-oil-water (SOW) systems. An integrated framework of hydrophobicity indicators could provide a complete tool for surfactant characterization, and insights on how their relationship may influence the overall phase behavior of the system. The hydrophilic-lipophilic difference (HLD) and the characteristic curvature (Cc) parameter, included in the HLD, have been shown to correlate with different hydrophobicity indicators including the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB), packing factor (Pf), phase inversion temperature (PIT), spontaneous curvature (Ho), surfactant partition (K(o-w)), and the critical micelle concentration (CMC). This work aims to investigate whether the HLD can further describe a concomitant hydrophobicity parameter, the cloud point (CP) of alkyl ethoxylates. After applying group contribution models to calculate the Cc of monodisperse (pure) nonionic alkyl ethoxylates, a linear correlation between the calculated Cc and the CP was observed for pure surfactants with 8 ethylene oxide (EO) units or less. Furthermore, using an apparent equivalent alkane carbon number (EACN) to represent the hydrophobicity of the micelle core, the HLD equation was capable of predicting cloud point temperatures of pure alkyl ethoxylates, typically within 5 °C. Polydisperse surfactants did not follow the linear CP-Cc correlation found for pure surfactants. After treating polydisperse samples using a liquid-liquid extraction procedure used to remove the most hydrophobic components in the mixture, the resulting treated surfactants fell in the correlation line of pure alkyl ethoxylates. A closer look at the partition behavior of these treated surfactants showed that their partition, Cc and cloud point are dominated by the most abundant ethoxymers in the treated surfactant. The HLD also predicted the cloud point depression of treated surfactants with increasing sodium chloride concentration. This work shows how the HLD framework could be extended to predict the behavior of SW systems.
RESUMO
Lecithin-linker microemulsions are formulations produced with soybean lecithin in combination with a highly lipophilic (lipophilic linker) and highly hydrophilic (hydrophilic linkers) surfactant-like additives. In this work, lecithin-linker systems were formulated to produce self-emulsifying delivery systems for ß-carotene and ß-sitosterol. The concentration of the lipophilic linker, sorbitan monooleate, was adjusted to minimize the formation of liquid crystals. The concentration of hydrophilic linkers, decaglyceryl caprylate/caprate and PEG-6-caprylic/capric glycerides, was gradually increased (scanned) until single phase clear microemulsions were obtained. For these scans, the oil (ethyl caprate) to water ratio was set to 1. The single phase, clear microemulsions were diluted with fed-state simulated intestinal fluid (FeSSIF) and produced stable emulsions, with drop sizes close to 200 nm. Using pseudo-ternary phase diagrams to evaluate the process of dilution of microemulsion preconcentrates (mixtures of oil, lecithin and linkers with little or no water) with FeSSIF, it was determined that self-emulsifying systems are obtained when the early stages of the dilution produce single phase microemulsions. If liquid crystals or multiple phase systems are obtained during those early stages, then the emulsification yields unstable emulsions with large drop sizes. An in vitro permeability study conducted using a Flow-Thru Dialyzer revealed that stable emulsions with drop sizes of 150-300 nm produce large and irreversible permeation of ß-carotene to sheep intestine. On the other hand, unstable emulsions produced without the linker combination separated in the dialyzer chamber.
