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Ultrasonic emulsification: basic characteristics, cavitation, mechanism, devices and application

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Abstract

Emulsion systems are widely applied in agriculture, food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. Ultrasound has attracted much attention in emulsion preparation, especially for nanoemulsion, due to its advantages of being eco-friendly, cost-effective and energy-efficient. This review provides an overview for readers to the area of ultrasonic emulsification technology. It briefly introduces and summarizes knowledge of ultrasonic emulsification, including emulsion characteristics, acoustic cavitation, emulsification mechanism, ultrasonic devices and applications. The combination of microfluidics and ultrasound is highlighted with huge advantages in controlling cavitation phenomena and emulsification intensification. A novel scale of dμC0.6/μD0.33−EV is proposed to be able to compare the energy efficiency of emulsion preparation in different devices.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge gratefully the financial supports for this project from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21991103 and 92034303).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China

    Chaoqun Yao, Lixue Liu, Zhikai Liu & Guangwen Chen

  2. School of Chemical Engineering, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Shuainan Zhao

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Chaoqun Yao & Zhikai Liu

  4. School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Lixue Liu

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  1. Chaoqun Yao
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  2. Shuainan Zhao
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  5. Guangwen Chen
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Correspondence to Guangwen Chen.

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Yao, C., Zhao, S., Liu, L. et al. Ultrasonic emulsification: basic characteristics, cavitation, mechanism, devices and application. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 16, 1560–1583 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2160-4

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