Proton (H¹) Low Field (LF) NMR energy relaxation technology for material characterization of emulsions in oxidizing and non-oxidizing condition

Emulsion systems are essential components of a vast number of important commercial products such as foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and petroleum. Emulsions can be defined as the mixture of two or more non miscible liquids in which one is dispersed as droplets throughout a continuous phase of the other liquid. Emulsion systems are well known for being thermodynamic unstable, therefore their manipulation is extremely challenging. The presence of water and oil interfacial interactions, in oil-in-water (O/W)-emulsions and water-in-oil (W/O)-emulsions affects the morphologies and chemical compositions of micelles or lipid membranes of vesicles with an aqueos core. Currently technologies are not able to readily characterize the oil and water interactions, and their effect on the emulsion`s arrangements, physical stability or susceptibility to oxidation. Therefore we are proposing to use the H<sup>1</sup> LF NMR energy relaxation technology in order to characterize oil-in-water (O/W)-emulsions and water-in-oil (W/O)-emulsions and to monitor the chemical and morphological changes caused by oxidation chemical reactions within these aggregate structures. In this study, linseed oil and water in different concentrations were used to produce emulsions that were submitted to an oxidation process. The emulsions were analyzed by the H<sup>1</sup> LF NMR in order to be characterized and to monitor the oxidative effects on material structures. This technology generates T1 and T2 spectrum with peaks that are correlated with the time domain of a material`s in a way that each material has a unique spectral signature. H¹ LF NMR allows a better understanding of how the chemical and morphological arrangements within emulsions system contributes to a product`s properties in many diverse fields of different applications, especially in the food industry.