Formation of monodisperse, nonspherical emulsion droplets upon stabilization by solid particles and bilayer forming molecules

我的研究重点是界面的物理化学。特别是，我专注于乳化液滴的油/水界面作为一个工作平台，以操纵和形状的材料。乳液液滴是天然球形的，因为表面张力通常主导所有其他力。然而，使多个相彼此接触会产生润湿现象，使我们能够利用表面张力产生的强大力来自组装固体颗粒或将液滴转化为不寻常的形状。我们的工作还利用非特异性弱分子力将分子或其他材料相互连接起来。此外，我们在基于液滴的微流体技术中使用可重复的流体动力来塑造我们实验室制造的材料。这些各种力的相互作用导致了许多令人惊讶的效果，例如形成均匀的非球形乳液液滴。我们试图通过采用不同的实验技术来量化我们系统中涉及的力，来了解控制这些形成过程的确切物理机制。在这里，我们想介绍两种新型的、连续操作的、基于乳液的均匀非球形微粒制造技术：该提案的第一部分利用固体颗粒稳定乳液滴。众所周知，这种颗粒稳定的乳液液滴可以获得非球形形状。我的工作第一次展示了如何均匀（单分散），颗粒稳定，非球形的乳液液滴可以连续生产。该提案的第二部分利用了脂质或嵌段共聚物双层上的油滴去湿效应。该技术是用于制造囊泡和聚合物体的成熟技术。然而，我的研究首次展示了这种方法如何用于获得复杂的非球形微粒。

My research is focused on the physical chemistry of interfaces. Particularly, I focus on the oil/water-interface of emulsion droplets as a working platform to manipulate and shape materials. Emulsion droplets are naturally spherical because surface tension typically dominates over all other forces. However, bringing multiple phases in contact with each other creates wetting phenomena that allows us to use the strong forces arising from surface tension to self-assemble solid particles or to transform liquid droplets into unusual shapes. Our work also takes advantage of nonspecific weak molecular forces to link molecules or other materials to each other. Additionally, we employ reproducible hydrodynamic forces in droplet-based microfluidics to shape the materials manufactured in our laboratory.The interplay of these various forces leads to many surprising effects, such as the formation of uniform, nonspherical emulsion droplets. We try to understand the exact physical mechanisms that govern these formation processes by employing different experimental techniques to quantify the forces involved in our systems.Herein, we would like to introduce two novel, continuously-operating, emulsion-based fabrication technique for uniform nonspherical microparticles:The first part of this proposal makes use of the stabilization of emulsion droplets by solid particles. It is well known that such particle stabilized emulsion droplets can obtain nonspherical shapes. My work shows for the first time how uniform (monodisperse), particle-stabilized, nonspherical emulsion droplets can be produced continuously.The second part of the proposal utilizes the dewetting effect of oil droplets on lipid or blockcopolymer bilayers. This technique is well-established for the fabrication of vesicles and polymerosomes. However, my research shows for the first time how this approach can be used to obtain complex nonspherical microparticles.