Premium
Control of Particle Adsorption for Stability of Pickering Emulsions in Microfluidics
Author(s) -
Yao Xiaoxue,
Liu Zhou,
Ma Mingze,
Chao Youchuang,
Gao Yongxiang,
Kong Tiantian
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201802902
Subject(s) - pickering emulsion , adsorption , emulsion , particle (ecology) , chemical engineering , materials science , microfluidics , nanotechnology , particle size , nanoparticle , ionic strength , chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering , oceanography , geology , aqueous solution
Studying the stability of Pickering emulsion is of great interest for applications including catalysis, oil recovery, and cosmetics. Conventional methods emphasize the overall behavior of bulk emulsions and neglect the influence of particle adsorbing dynamics, leading to discrepancies in predicting the shelf‐life of Pickering emulsion–based products. By employing a microfluidic method, the particle adsorption is controlled and the stability of the Pickering emulsions is consequently examined. This approach enables us to elucidate the relationship between the particle adsorption dynamics and the stability of Pickering emulsions on droplet‐level quantitatively. Using oil/water emulsions stabilized by polystyrene nanoparticles as an example, the diffusion‐limited particle adsorption is demonstrated and investigated the stability criteria with respect to particle size, particle concentration, surface chemistry, and ionic strength. This approach offers important insights for application involving Pickering emulsions and provides guidelines to formulate and quantify the Pickering emulsion–based products.