Compositional ripening of particle- and surfactant-stabilised emulsions: a comparison

Condensed Matter journal club

Compositional ripening of particle- and surfactant-stabilised emulsions: a comparison

  • Event time: 11:30am
  • Event date: 11th June 2010
  • Speaker: (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
  • Location: Room 2511,

Event details

Abstract

When -ionone-in-water emulsions are mixed with squalane-in-water emulsions, the slightly water-soluble, mobile -ionone undergoes mass transfer to the drops of highly water-insoluble, immobile oil squalane. We have investigated this compositional ripening process for emulsions stabilised either by particles or by surfactant molecules. For particle-stabilised emulsions, the swelling of the squalane-containing drops triggers droplet coalescence which causes the final swollen droplet radius to be proportional to the swelling ratio to the power of 1. Surfactant-stabilised emulsions swell without coalescence which causes the final droplet radius to be proportional to the swelling ratio to the power 1/3. Addition of excess, non-adsorbed particles to the particle-stabilised emulsions suppresses the swelling-triggered coalescence and causes a switchover from particle to surfactant behaviour.
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 12 2219 (2010)

Authors

B.P. Binks, P.D.I. Fletcher, B.L. Holt, O.Kuca, P. Beaussoubre and K. Wong

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