Rheological behavior of water-creosote and creosote-water emulsions

Abstract

The effect of temperature on the steady-shear viscosity of two base emulsions (water-in-creosote (w/o) and creosote-in-water (o/w)) and a pigment emulsified creosote (PEC) was investigated. The PEC is a water-in-creosote emulsion which contains also a solid, micronised pigment, and is used industrially as a wood preservative. All three emulsions exhibited shear thinning characteristics at different temperatures. The viscosity-shear rate relationships follow a modified Quemada model. A temperature-superposition method using the reduced variables η/η_∞ and t _c $\dot \gamma$ was applied to yield a master plot for each of these emulsions at different temperatures. The effect of creosote concentration on the viscosity of four other o/w emulsions at different temperatures was also studied. The same reduced variables were able to produce a temperature-concentration superposition plot for all of the o/w emulsion results.

The effective (average) radius of the globules (dispersed phase) was found to increase with increasing temperature for the base w/o and the PEC emulsion. The collision theory could be used to explain the increase in the droplet size. However, while little overall variation in globule size was observed for the o/w emulsions, microscopic observation indicated an increase in the proportion of large diameter droplets with temperature at the highest creosote concentration (60%). A “creaming” effect (phase concentration) was observed with these emulsions at higher temperatures, precluding an accurate estimate of droplet size based on collision theory.