What is the Difference Between Stabilizers and Emulsifiers

The key difference between stabilizers and emulsifiers is that stabilizers can prevent degradation and bring stability to a medium, whereas emulsifiers can help an emulsion to keep from separating.

Stabilizers and emulsifiers are related compounds in terms of their applications. In fact, emulsifiers are a type of stabilizers.

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What are Stabilizers
3. What are Emulsifiers
4. Stabilizers vs Emulsifiers in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Stabilizers vs Emulsifiers

What are Stabilizers?

Stabilizers are chemical substances that are useful in preventing degradation. In general, we can add heat and light stabilizers to plastics to ensure safe processing and protect the final product against aging and weathering. This application is mainly used for fluid systems, pellets, and masterbatches of other products. There are three major types of stabilizers known as monofunctional, bifunctional, and polyfunctional stabilizers.

Typically, the most significant products in the market now are based on calcium, lead, and tin stabilizers. Moreover, there are liquid and light stabilizers, as well. However, cadmium-based stabilizers are not used today due to health and environmental concerns.

Stabilizers vs Emulsifiers in Tabular Form

Figure 01: Salpn, a Common Stabilizer and Metal Deactivator

There are some major types of stabilizers, such as antioxidants, sequestrants, and UV stabilizers. Antioxidants can prevent autooxidation, and there are three subcategories known as oxygen scavengers, persistent radical scavengers, and antiozonants. Sequestrants form chelate complexes to inactivate metal ion traces that are able to undergo catalysis. On the other hand, UV stabilizers are useful in protecting polymers from any impacts that are coming from UV radiation. Also, there are two subcategories; they are UV absorbers and quenchers.

What are Emulsifiers?

An emulsifier is a chemical agent that allows us to stabilize an emulsion. That means it prevents the separation of liquids that usually do not mix with each other. It does so by increasing the kinetic stability of the mixture. One good example of an emulsifier is surfactants. Also, there are two types of emulsifiers; they are lipophilic emulsifiers and hydrophilic emulsifiers.

Lipophilic emulsifiers are emulsifying agents that work with oil-based emulsions. These chemical reagents are important in removing a penetrant when a defect due to the over-washing of the emulsion is a concern. Here, lipophilic emulsifiers can make the excess penetrant more removable with washing using water. Usually, lipophilic emulsifiers are oil-based materials, and these reagents are produced as ready-to-use agents by the manufacturer.

Hydrophilic emulsifiers are emulsifying agents that work with water-based emulsions. Similar to lipophilic emulsifiers, these chemical reagents are also important in removing a penetrant from a defect when the over-washing of the emulsion is a concern. Here, lipophilic emulsifiers can make the excess penetrant more removable by washing with water. Usually, hydrophilic emulsifiers are water-based materials and are produced as a concentrate by the manufacturer. Therefore, we need to dilute the concentration of the hydrophilic emulsifier using water to a preferable concentration before using it.

What is the Difference Between Stabilizers and Emulsifiers?

Emulsifiers are a type of stabilizer because emulsifier helps stabilize an emulsion to avoid its separation into components. However, there can be many different types of stabilizers. The key difference between stabilizers and emulsifiers is that stabilizers can prevent degradation and bring stability to a medium, whereas emulsifiers can help an emulsion to keep from separating.

Below is a summary of the difference between stabilizers and emulsifiers in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.

Summary – Stabilizers vs Emulsifiers

Stabilizers are chemical substances that are useful in preventing degradation, while an emulsifier is a chemical agent that allows us to stabilize an emulsion. The key difference between stabilizers and emulsifiers is that stabilizers can prevent degradation and bring stability to a medium, whereas emulsifiers can help an emulsion to keep from separating.