Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochem. Eng. Aspects 458 (2014) 32–39 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects j ourna l h om epa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/colsurfa A simple method to assess the hydrophilic lipophilic balance of food and cosmetic surfactants using the phase inversion temperature of C 10 E 4 /n-octane/water emulsions Jesús F. Ontiveros a,b , Christel Pierlot a , Marianne Catté a , Valérie Molinier a , Jean-Louis Salager b , Jean-Marie Aubry a,∗ a Université Lille Nord de France, USTL & ENSCL, Cité Scientifique, EA-CMF 4478, Equipe, Oxydation et Physico-Chimie de la Formulation, F-59652 Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France b Laboratorio FIRP, Ingeniería Química, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela h i g h l i g h t s • Effect of an additional second sur- factant on the phase inversion tem- perature (PIT) of C 10 E 4 /octane/water system. • dPIT/dC expresses the amphiphilicity of the second surfactant. • dPIT/dC allows classifying surfactants in a simple and reliable way. • Application to food and cosmetic sur- factants. g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 21 October 2013 Received in revised form 18 February 2014 Accepted 27 February 2014 Available online 12 March 2014 Keywords: Phase inversion temperature Surfactant classification HLB Cosmetic surfactant Food surfactant a b s t r a c t The modification of the phase inversion temperature (PIT) of C 10 E 4 /n-octane/water emulsions was studied as a function of increasing amounts of additional second surfactants in order to rank them according to their hydrophilic lipophilic balance. Twenty five surfactants, selected from a wide range of chemical families, were studied. Well-defined polyethoxylated alkyl surfactants (C i E j ) show a linear variation of the PIT with their concentration C and can be used as standards to calibrate a scale in terms of dPIT/dC. This parameter leads to a simple classification of surfactants with respect to C 10 E 4 . Positive and negative values correspond to more or less hydrophilic surfactants compared to C 10 E 4 , respectively. Several industrial surfactants used in cosmetic and food industries (lecithins, sorbitan derivatives Spans and Tweens, sucrose esters, monoglycerides) were investigated and results are discussed with respect to the HLB scale of Griffin. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The selection of an appropriate surfactant is a determinant step to formulate emulsions or micro-emulsions. To achieve a ∗ Corresponding author. +33 320336364. E-mail address: Jean-Marie.Aubry@univ-lille1.fr (J.-M. Aubry). good choice several tools can be used to compare the hydrophilic lipophilic balance of different surfactants. These methods will con- sider either the chemical structure of the surfactant molecule (HLB [1], packing parameter [2]), or the behavior of surfactant in water (cloud point), or the behavior of surfactant in the pres- ence of water and oil (PIT [3], HLD [4], effective packing parameter [5]). To classify non ionic surfactants, Griffin [1] introduced the hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB), an empirical scale arbitrary http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfa.2014.02.058 0927-7757/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.