PARTITION-COEFFICIENTS OF MIXED FLUOROCARBON-HYDROCARBON COMPOUNDS BETWEEN FLUOROCARBONS AND HEXADECANE - RELEVANCE TO FLUOROCARBON EMULSION STABILIZATION

With the aim of better understanding the drastic stabilization of fluo rocarbon/egg yolk phospholipids (EYP)/water emulsions upon addition of mixed fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon R(F)R(H) amphiphiles, the partition co efficients of a series of mixed CmF2m+1-CH = CH-CnH2n+1 (FmHnE) compou nds between a fluorocarbon phase (F-decalin, perfluorooctyl bromide an d bis-1,2-(F-butyl)ethene), and hexadecane, taken as a model of lipidi c chains of EYP, have been measured at 25-degrees-C. The R(F)R(H) mole cules distribute themselves without any marked preference between any of the fluorinated phases and a hexadecane. They are therefore suscept ible of anchoring in both the fluorocarbon emulsion droplets and in th e hydrocarbon side of the lipidic film that surrounds them. This is co nsistent with our hypothesis that such R(F)R(H) Molecules could play t he role of ''molecular dowels'' and improve the cohesion between a hyd rocarbon and a fluorocarbon phase.