Forced generation of simple and double emulsions in all-aqueous system

Alban Sauret (1, 2) , Ho Cheung Shum (1)

1 HKU - The University of Hong Kong
2 IRPHE - Institut de Recherche sur les Phénomènes Hors Equilibre

We report an easy-to-implement method that allows the direct generation of water-in-water (w/w) single emulsions. The method relies on direct perturbation of the pressure that drives the flow of the dispersed phase of the emulsions. The resultant inner jet is induced to break up into droplets due to the growth of the perturbation through Rayleigh-Plateau instability [L. Rayleigh, Proc. R. Soc. London 29, 71-97 (1879)]; this leads to the formation of monodisperse droplets. By implementing this method on a modified microfluidic device, we directly generate water-in-water-in-water (w/w/w) double emulsions with good control over the size and the number of encapsulated droplets. Our approach suggests a new route to apply droplet-based microfluidics to completely water-based systems.

Mots clés: microfluidics; all-aqueous emulsions; induced droplet breakup; multiphase flow

Domaines: Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Alban Sauret, Ho Cheung Shum. Forced generation of simple and double emulsions in all-aqueous system. Applied Physics Letters, 2012, 100, pp.154106. ⟨10.1063/1.3702434⟩. ⟨hal-00761539⟩