Control of Particle Adsorption for Stability of Pickering Emulsions in Microfluidics |
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| Authors: | Xiaoxue Yao Zhou Liu Mingze Ma Youchuang Chao Yongxiang Gao Tiantian Kong |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China;2. College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China;3. Key Laboratory of Optoelectronics Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education/Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China;4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China;5. Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | droplet coalescence microfluidics particle adsorption particle‐laden interfaces Pickering emulsion |
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