ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the results obtained on foam, emulsion, and wetting films, stabilized by the nonionic polymeric surfactants. A particularly interesting result is the formation of Newton black films (NBF) in the O/W emulsion films. The chapter demonstrates that the NBF are believed to be decisive for the high stability of the real emulsion. It considers foam, emulsion, and wetting films and demonstrates that mainly steric forces are the interaction forces that stabilize them. The formation, film thickness, lifetime, and stability of various types of thin liquid films have been studied by the microintelferometric method of Scheludko—Exerowa. This method has widely been used by many authors for the investigation of both symmetric thin liquid films and asymmetric ones. Information about surface forces and nanoscale phenomena in aqueous films containing polymeric surfactants was obtained (in various conditions such as capillary pressure, electrolyte concentration, polymer concentration, and temperature) using the microinterferometric technique and the thin liquid film—pressure balance technique.
