The mechanisms for phase separation in highly concentrated emulsions when subjected to a thermal phase transition remain to be elucidated. Here, we create a hexagonally close-packed monodisperse emulsion in 2D and show that during a cool-heat cycle, the emulsion fully destabilizes akin to phase separation. The mechanism for this catastrophic destabilization is found to be spontaneous coalescence initiation that synchronously occurs between every solidified droplet and its neighbors. This synchronous coalescence initiation establishes system-wide network connectivity in the emulsion causing large-scale destabilization. This system-wide coalescence initiation is found to be insensitive to droplet size and tested surfactants, but dependent on network connectivity and crystal content of individual droplets.

中文翻译：

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由于同步聚结引发，二维紧密堆积乳液的灾难性热失稳。

当经历热相变时，高浓度乳液中的相分离机理仍有待阐明。在这里，我们以二维方式创建了六方密堆积的单分散乳液，并表明在冷热循环中，乳液完全破坏了相分离的稳定性。发现此灾难性不稳定现象的机制是自发的聚结引发，它在每个固化的液滴及其相邻液滴之间同步发生。此同步合并启动会在乳液中建立系统范围的网络连接，从而导致大规模的不稳定。发现该系统范围的聚结引发对液滴尺寸和经测试的表面活性剂不敏感，但取决于网络连通性和单个液滴的晶体含量。