PICKFOOD - Pickering emulsions for food applications

Project: PhD

Project Details

Description

Pickering emulsions are known for their high degree of stability. This is due to the irreversible adsorption of particles to the interface, which provides a steric barrier to droplet coalescence. Over the past decade, there has been a significant amount of research on how particle size, shape, concentration, wettability, and continuous or dispersed phase composition affect the type and stability of Pickering emulsion that is formed. However, little is known on the coalescence dynamics of particle-stabilized droplets and coalescence stability of the formed emulsions. In this work, we will develop microfluidic strategies to prepare well-defined and monodispersed particle-stabilized droplets which will allow us to better quantify and analyze the coalescence behaviour of Pickering emulsions. We will control the droplets coalescence using customized microfluidic designs and optical tweezers and the coalescence process will be captured using fluorescence microscopy with high spatiotemporal resolution. The interactions between coalesced droplets will also be measured by optical tweezers. We will further establish predictive models of the droplet coalescence and emulsion stability based on experimental and theoretical investigation.
StatusActive
Effective start/end date1/06/22 → …

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