Greener Chemistry Leads the SCC Charge in Charleston

By: Rachel Grabenhofer, Cosmetics & Toiletries

Posted: June 25, 2012

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Dan Roman of D-D Chemco, sponsor of the poster awards, then presented the winning posters, as selected by the SCC Committee on Scientific Affairs. In fourth place were Vipul Padman and Bob Lochhead, PhD, from the University of Southern Mississippi, for studying the effect of backbone rigidity and hydrophilicity on polymer-surfactant interactions. Third place went to Jennifer Karr and Gerald Hasting, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati, for work on DEET encapsulation to reduce its absorption. Second place went to Sudhir Baswan et al., also from the University of Cincinnati, for the characterization of ion transport in the human nail plate. First place was awarded to Andrew Adams, Lisa Kemp and Lochhead, of the University of Southern Mississippi, for their poster on using contact angle and surface tension measurements to design oil dispersants.

The luncheon ended with a song, as it was a special birthday celebration for past president Gary Agisim of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare.

Formulation Feats

The last session of the event focused on new aspects of formulation work. Moderated by Jennifer Marsh, PhD, of Procter & Gamble, the talks opened with Jennifer Kravchenko, of Clariant Corp., on approaches to put some excitement into hand sanitizers via desirable aesthetics and benefits. She described the application of pearlescent effects, benzalkonium chloride in silicone-based formulations for improved stability and a surfactant-free benzalkonium chloride foaming hand sanitizer based on PEG, for mild cleansing.

Next was Jurgen Meyer, PhD, of Evonik Industries, who explained the influence of emulsifiers, emollients and additives on lamellar phases in emulsions. Neutron scattering, among other techniques, was used to examine the bilayer structures and showed that o/w creams stabilized by combinations of emulsifiers and consistency enhancers consist of oil droplets and liquid crystalline bilayer structures in the aqueous phase—vesicles. These creams are not thickened purely by the presence of liquid crystalline bilayer structures in the aqueous phase, and a significant amount of oil is needed to create a cream-like consistency. According to research, now a more realistic model can be proposed for the structure of liquid crystalline phases in o/w emulsions to better predict the influence of various ingredients on emulsion properties. Meyer noted, “[To conduct this work properly], you really have to look at electron microscopy with experts to interpret the images.” This presentation drew great interest from attendees.

Irwin Palefsy, of Cosmetech Labs, suggested, in relation to small variations in the work, “You may possibly be getting bilayer and multilamellar formation, and this could be the reason for the variations.” Also, Lochhead remarked, “This is right on the cusp of what’s going on in emulsion science right now.”