Coulomb liquids along Phase Boundaries

Three areas in which Coulomb interactions are of obvious importance are considered in turn, namely liquid alkali metals, electron–hole droplets, and lithium halides. The focus in the first two areas is dominantly on critical point properties, whereas in the third area the solid–liquid transition is the predominant interest.     

Effect of boundary conditions on turbulence characteristics in two-phase jet flows with phase transitions

It is shown that there are no self-similarity and similarity of transverse fields of correlation moments of fluctuating parameters of phases in two-phase jets, in contrast to one-phase jets. The influence of the initial values of a number of parameters of a two-phase jet (gas temperature, volume concentration of droplets in the initial cross section, and radius of the initial cross section of the jet) on turbulence characteristics is analyzed on the basis of numerical simulations. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 29–40, May–June, 2005.     

Simulation Analysis on the Profiles of Droplets Wetting on the Substrates

To study the structural characteristics and physical properties of droplets sitting on the inclined substrates and cylindrical surfaces, wetting experiments are conducted in different cases. The profile curves of the droplets are recorded and extracted by a CCD camera and image processing, respectively. Contact angles are figured out by fitting the profile curves and taking the derivative at the front and rear triple points. Based on the experimental results, a Surface Evolver is employed to simulate the morphological changes by minimizing the total energy of the system. Furthermore, theoretical shapes and feature parameters, including the heights and the spreading distances of the droplets, which are hard to obtain by normal experimental measurements are provided. The contact-angle hysteresis when the heavy droplet sitting on the inclined substrate is discussed. Meanwhile, the evolutions of the contour of the three-phase contact line are predicted when heavy droplets spread on the convex and concave cylindrical surfaces, respectively. This study provides a finite-element analysis method to describe the surface properties of molten droplets on different substrates, and the simulation results agree well with the experimental results.     

Emulsions with unique properties from proteins as emulsifiers

Many proteins are surface active molecules and form stable emulsions. In these emulsions, the protein covered oil droplets behave as sticky droplets even when they are ionically charged. As a result of the stickiness of the droplets the emulsions have gel-like properties. The stickiness is due to the multipolar nature of the proteins in contrast to the bipolar nature of surfactants or other amphiphilic compounds that form emulsions with repulsive droplets. Stable emulsions are also formed from particles like clays to which proteins are adsorbed. These hybrid compounds form even more stable emulsions with stronger elastic properties than clays and proteins on their own.     

微液滴在仿蛛丝结构TiO_2纤维表面的定向运动与粘附

制备了具有响应性的仿蛛丝周期纺锤节TiO2纤维。通过改变纤维表面微观结构、紫外光照和超声波等手段,仿蛛丝结构TiO2纤维表面浸润性会发生响应性变化。纤维表面的这种浸润性变化,不仅实现了水滴从纺锤节两端到中心处的定向运动,而且可以使得水滴被纤维纺锤节粘附。当仿蛛丝结构TiO2纤维表面为亲水状态时,无论纺锤节光滑还是粗糙,水都是从纺锤节两端向中心方向运动;当仿蛛丝结构TiO2纤维表面疏水时,水滴会被具有粗糙表面的纺锤节两端粘附。     

Fabrication of polymersomes with controllable morphologies through dewetting w/o/w double emulsion droplets

In this work, monodisperse giant polymersomes are fabricated by dewetting of water-in-oil-in-water double emulsion droplets which are assembled by amphiphilic block copolymer molecules in a microfluidic device. The dewetting process can be tuned by solvation between solvent and amphiphilic block copolymer to get polymersomes with controllable morphology. Good solvent(chloroform and toluene) hinders dewetting process of double emulsion droplets and gets acornlike polymersomes or patched polymersomes. On the other hand, poor solvent(hexane) accelerates the dewetting process and achieves complete separation of inner water phase from oil phase to form complete bilayer polymersomes. In addition, twin polymersomes with bilayer membrane structure are formed by this facile method. The formation mechanism for different polymersomes is discussed in detail.     

Fabrication of Microfluidic Devices for Emulsion Formation by Microstereolithography

Droplet microfluidics—the art and science of forming droplets—has been revolutionary for high-throughput screening, directed evolution, single-cell sequencing, and material design. However, traditional fabrication techniques for microfluidic devices suffer from several disadvantages, including multistep processing, expensive facilities, and limited three-dimensional (3D) design flexibility. High-resolution additive manufacturing—and in particular, projection micro-stereolithography (PµSL)—provides a promising path for overcoming these drawbacks. Similar to polydimethylsiloxane-based microfluidics 20 years ago, 3D printing methods, such as PµSL, have provided a path toward a new era of microfluidic device design. PµSL greatly simplifies the device fabrication process, especially the access to truly 3D geometries, is cost-effective, and it enables multimaterial processing. In this review, we discuss both the basics and recent innovations in PµSL; the material basis with emphasis on custom-made photopolymer formulations; multimaterial 3D printing; and, 3D-printed microfluidic devices for emulsion formation as our focus application. Our goal is to support researchers in setting up their own PµSL system to fabricate tailor-made microfluidics.