Assessment and Application of Modified Cationic Polyvinyl Alcohol Emulsifiers in Bitumen Emulsions

Abstract In this work, a series of emulsifiers were prepared by changing the molar ratio of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to the long chain quaternary ammonium salt (A 0 ). The emulsifiers were characterised by FTIR and 1 HNMR. The stability of the emulsions was checked and evaluated by determining the phase separation and by UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The emulsion stability increased with increasing emulsifier concentration, which was mainly due to the reduced droplet size and increased viscosity of the emulsions. Stability was also dependent on pH. At pH values between 5 to 3, stability was increased, but at further decreasing pH values, the emulsion became unstable or the emulsion separated. This could be mainly because the excess of positive ions compresses the double electron layer. The experimental results showed that PVA as a macromolecular matrix material has a great application potential for the emulsification process.