Oleogels from glycerol-based lyotropic liquid crystals: Phase diagrams and structural characterization

Yael Cegla-Nemirovsky, Abraham Aserin, Nissim Garti*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the course of our studies on structured reverse lyotropic liquid crystals (LLC) as oleogels, a system was designed with the desired physical and rheology properties for cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications. The aqueous phase was partially replaced by glycerol to minimize bacteriological problems and obtain specific rheology characteristics. The constructed phase diagrams are based on ternary mixtures of glycerol monooleate (GMO), decane, water, and glycerol. The main lyotropic mesophase obtained in this study was reverse hexagonal derived from dilution line 8:2 (72 wt% GMO and 18 wt% decane) and 10 wt% water; or water:glycerol (wt ratios 3:1 and 1:1) mixture. It was found that heat-cool fluctuation caused formation of new pseudo-equilibrium structures with mesomorphic transformations to more fluid and less ordered mesostructures. Replacing up to 50 wt% of the water by glycerol significantly increases the gel phase region in the phase diagram, meaning more structural compositional options. The structural parameters were determined using cross-polarized light microscopy (CPLM), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Rheological measurements revealed viscoelastic properties of lyotropic liquid crystals with a decrease in the elasticity (G′), plasticity (G″), and complex viscosity (η∗), as a function of increasing the glycerol content.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)439-447
Number of pages9
JournalJAOCS, Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society
Volume92
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Mar 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© AOCS 2015.

Keywords

  • DSC
  • Monoolein
  • Pseudoternary phase diagrams
  • Reverse hexagonal mesophases
  • Rheology
  • SAXS

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