Determining α-tocopherol distributions between the oil, water, and interfacial regions of macroemulsions: Novel applications of electroanalytical chemistry and the pseudophase kinetic model

The assumptions of the pseudophase model for chemical reactivity in homogeneous microemulsions are used to determine the distribution of α-tocopherol (TOC) in macroemulsions from changes in the observed rate constant (kobs) for reaction between 4-hexadecylarenediazonium ion (16-ArN2+) probe and TOC with increasing surfactant concentration. Two partition constants are needed to describe the distribution of TOC or other antioxidant (AO) or polar uncharged molecule between the oil and interfacial (POI) and the water and interfacial (PWI) regions of stirred fluid emulsions. The observed rate constants are measured electrochemically. Here we report values of POI and PWI for the distribution of TOC in octane/acidic water/C12E6 (hexaethylene glycol monododecyl ether) and octane/acidic water/C12E4 (Brij 30, tetraethylene glycol dodecyl ether) emulsions obtained by fitting two kinetic data sets with an equation based on the pseudophase model and solving two equations in two unknowns. The partition constants were used to estimate the %TOC in each region of the emulsions. In 1:1 oil:water C12E6 emulsions, at 2% volume fraction of C12E6, 73% of TOC is in the interfacial region, 26% in the octane and about 1% in the water. The distributions of TOC in C12E4 emulsions are similar. The combined electrochemical-pseudophase model approach is applicable to any AO or other compound that reacts with 16-ArN2+. The second-order rate constant, kI, for reaction in the interfacial region of the emulsions is also estimated from the kinetic data and is about the same for both surfactants (kI ≈ 0.1 − 0.2 M− 1s− 1) showing that the medium properties of the interfacial regions of C12E6 and C12E4 emulsions are similar. Comparison of these rate constants for a variety of AOs may provide a scale of AO efficiency that is independent of AO distribution between the oil, interfacial and aqueous regions of emulsions.