Heat stable emulsions

Abstract

Emulsions containing a hydrocarbon liquid in a continuous phase and alcohol and/or water in a dispersed phase. The emulsions are stabilized by an emulsifier and a coupling agent. The emulsifier is a copolymer containing at least one relatively hydrophobic polymeric block of styrene or ring substituted styrene monomer, and at least one relatively hydrophilic polymeric block of at least one monomer, such as ethylene oxide, selected from the group having the formula H(O—R)nOH where R is an aliphatic radical containing from 1 to 4 carbon atoms and n is a number between 20 and 300. The coupling agent is a copolymer containing at least one polymeric block of styrene or ring substituted styrene monomer, and at least one block being of a saturated or unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbon moiety, such as butadiene. In order to stabilize the emulsion against stratification or breakage under heat soak conditions the coupling agent contains the styrene monomer and the hydrocarbon moiety in a weight ratio of from 1:0.3 to 1:1.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.