Issue 46, 2020

Responsive drop method: quantitative in situ determination of surfactant effectiveness using reconfigurable Janus emulsions

Abstract

Characterization of surfactant effectiveness and thus an evaluation of their performance in a wide range of emulsion technologies requires a precise determination of key parameters including their critical micelle concentrations as well as their ability to lower the surface tension at interfaces. In this study, we describe a new approach to quantify marginal variations in interfacial tension of surfactant stabilized fluid interfaces. The method is based on a unique chemical-morphological coupling inside bi-phasic oil-in-water Janus emulsions that undergo dynamic morphological transitions in response to changes in the surfactant type, concentration, ratio, and configuration. Variations in Janus droplet morphologies are readily monitored in situ using a simple side-view imaging setup, resulting in a fast, convenient, cost-effective, time-, and sample-saving technique for the characterization of classical surfactant systems. In addition, the reported method facilitates monitoring of triggered changes in surfactant effectiveness, e.g. invoked by external triggers, and thus proves particularly useful for the in situ analysis of stimuli-responsive surfactants and emulsions.

Graphical abstract: Responsive drop method: quantitative in situ determination of surfactant effectiveness using reconfigurable Janus emulsions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 Sep 2020
Accepted
02 Nov 2020
First published
02 Nov 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2020,16, 10419-10424

Responsive drop method: quantitative in situ determination of surfactant effectiveness using reconfigurable Janus emulsions

S. Djalali, B. D. Frank and L. Zeininger, Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 10419 DOI: 10.1039/D0SM01724H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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