Influence of external electric field on the polarity of water droplets in water-in-oil emulsion phase transition

The effect of external electric field on the interactions among water droplets in water-in-oil emulsion is quantified in this work. The obtained contribution is introduced into the potential energy function among the drops. Using the first order Barker Henderson perturbation theory, a modified thermodynamic model has been developed in order to find equilibrium conditions at various temperatures and external electric fields. The results show that the modification on the dipole dipole interactions has pronounced effects on the calculated equilibrium conditions, especially on the predicted required electric field for breaking the emulsion. Phase diagrams for different drop diameters and adsorption layer thicknesses are plotted and the final results are discussed compared to the experimental data available in the literature. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.