Experimental Studies of Monodisperse Pickering Emulsions Stabilized by Laponite Clay

Abstract

Experiments on oil-in-water Pickering emulsions stabilized by the disc-likesynthetic clay mineral Laponite were performed. Magnetic resonance imagingwas used to determine how the viscosity of the oil, the oil volume fractionand preparation parameters affected emulsion stability and droplet diameters.Droplet sizes increased with higher oil viscosity, and decreased withlarger oil volume fraction, longer mixing times and higher mixing velocities.The emulsions formed were more stable under conditions where the colloidalparticles were flocculated, and when high viscosity oil was used. Monodisperseemulsions to be studied with optical methods were made using microfluidicdevices. An emulsion stable to coalescence was successfully madein a T-junction microcapillary, and deformation of droplets under externalpressure was observed.