Abstract
Droplet formation in the presence of nanoparticles was studied in a T-shaped microfluidic device numerically. Nanoparticles in continuous phase did not influence droplet formation dynamics obviously. Contrarily, the presence of nanoparticles in dispersed phase will influence evidently droplet formation dynamics, likely reasons are the accumulation of nanoparticles at the liquid–liquid interface leading to the variation of interfacial tension and the anisotropy of nanoparticles’ movement at interface. The droplet size decreases almost linearly with increasing of the volume fraction of nanoparticles in dispersed phase when the volume fraction of nanoparticles not exceeding a critical value (about 0.2 %), because very high concentration of nanoparticles results in particle aggregation so as to not decrease interfacial tension so obviously any more. A complicated mechanism of temperature influences on droplet formation may exist combining the variations of effective viscosity and interfacial tension. Discussions on microscopic mechanism of droplet formation in the presence of nanoparticles were carried out.
Highlights
Droplet-based microfluidics, as one of the main flow forms of microfluidics, have greatly interested many researchers, and have been widely used in the areas of nanomaterials preparation, pharmaceutical analysis, protein engineering, and so on
The tip of the dispersed phase fluid intrudes into the main channel, and the tip grows under the balance of interfacial tension, shearing force, and the pressure drop occurred between the tip and rear of the emerging droplet
The problem can be described in terms of following dimensional and physical parameters: interfacial tension r, channel depth h, channel width wc; wd, flow velocity vc; vd, viscosity lc; ld, density qc; qd
Summary
Droplet-based microfluidics, as one of the main flow forms of microfluidics, have greatly interested many researchers, and have been widely used in the areas of nanomaterials preparation, pharmaceutical analysis, protein engineering, and so on. Processes of droplet formation would be numerically simulated in the presence of nanoparticles in continuous phase or dispersed phase, in order to investigate the influence of particle concentration, particle diameter, and temperature.
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