[Gel-emulsion systems. I. Physical-chemical characterisation].

Emulsion gels prepared with polyacrylic acid-alkyl acrylate diblock copolymer surfactants were studied. It was supposed that the polymer surfactants surrounding the oil droplets formed a microgel structure and this structure stabilized the emulsions sterically. This assumption was verified by thermoanalytic investigation. The effect of polymer concentration and the amount of oil on the rheological characteristics, the rate of water evaporation and droplet size distribution was analysed. It was established that gel emulsions had viscoelastic the properties, the viscosity increased exponentially with increasing emulsifier concentration and amount of oil. Water was present in two forms: i) in microgel surrounding oil droplets and ii) in dispersion medium. The distribution of droplet size was generally a monodisperse one, the average droplet size decreased with polymer concentration.