A new method for water-in-oil emulsion film studies

A new method to study thin liquid emulsion films is developed. It is based on the microinterferometric Thin Liquid Film-Pressure Balance Technique and involves a newly designed measuring cell that allows application of AC and/or DC polarizations to single water-in-oil emulsion films. The major advantage of this new technique is that within a single experiment it is possible to determine independently the most important film parameters: film thickness, critical voltage, film diameter, rate of film drainage, film capacitance and relative film permittivity. The experimental results presented on capacitance versus film thinning, critical voltage of film rupture and relative film permittivity determination, provide a good idea of the usefulness of the new approach. The new method opens a broader perspective to a more profound study of water-in-oil emulsions at a microscopic level.