Water-water interfaces

NIZO food research is an independent contract research company that employees 200 workers which assist food and ingredient companies. One of the key objectives in food research is the understanding under which conditions water-water emulsions are stable. It is often desirable from an environmental point of view to replace organic solvents by water. Also, the increased demand for low-fat food products leads to the question to what extent water-water emulsions can replacewater-oil emulsions. The NIZO research question posed to the physics community is therefore to find surfactant-like molecules that sit at the water-water interface. The surfactant-like molecules may then be tailored (1) to make sure that there is a repulsion between emulsion droplets (by adding charge, etc) necessary for stability, (2) to change the rigidness of the emulsion droplet’s surface. The formulation of a theoretical framework to understand the properties of the water-water interface is therefore our main goal.