ABSTRACT
Nanotechnology is an emerging field that has great potential to transfigure the pharmaceutical and food industries. Techniques for the identification and characterization of nanoemulsions are essential for understanding the possible benefits as well as potential toxicity of these systems. Nanotechnology involves research, technology development, and control of structures within sizes from 10 to 500 nm. For the identification and characterization of nanoemulsions, three basic steps are involved: separation, characterization and imaging techniques. In this section, we will discuss the separation techniques of nanoemulsions from complex matrix systems, such as pharmaceutical and food products. For the separation of nanoemulsion, mostly liquid chromatography and field-flow fractionation (FFF) are applied. Since the size and charge are typical characteristics of nanoemulsions, the “size-exclusion” and “ion-exchange” methods are the most suitable types of chromatography techniques for the separation of nanoemulsions from pharmaceutical and food products. In this book chapter, we will discuss the methods applied for the separation of nanoemulsions from pharmaceutical and food products such as FFF and chromatography, e.g., size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and ion-exchange chromatography.
