https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60002-0
Regular Article
Controlled microfluidic emulsification of oil in a clay nanofluid: Role of salt for Pickering stabilization
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro – PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
2 Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
Received: 6 January 2016
Revised: 2 May 2016
Published online: 15 July 2016
Research on emulsions is driven by their widespread use in different industries, such as food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and oil recovery. Emulsions are stabilized by suitable surfactants, polymers, solid particles or a combination of them. Microfluidic emulsification is the process of droplet formation out of two or more liquids under strictly controlled conditions, without pre-emulsification step. Microfluidic technology offers a powerful tool for investigating the properties of emulsions themselves. In this work stable oil in water emulsions were formed with hydrophilic Laponite RD® nanoparticles adsorbed at the interface of the oil phase and aqueous clay nanofluid in a T junction microfluidic chip. Emulsion stability up to at least 40 days could be observed.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2016
