Research progress on quantitative exploration of the interaction mechanism between droplets

doi:10.11949/0438-1157.20210925

Abstract

Abstract:

Emulsions have been widely used in various fields including daily life, medical health and industrial production. It plays an important role in understanding and revealing the stability mechanism of emulsions and developing novel functional emulsions for quantitative measurement and study of the interaction force between monodisperse droplets. With the development of quantitative measurement tools, surface force apparatus, atomic force microscopes, and optical tweezers have made it possible to quantitatively study the stable mechanism of emulsions. The surface force apparatus is mainly used to measure the interaction force between two flat surfaces. The polymer or functional material to be measured needs to be coated between the two planes. The atomic force microscope mainly focuses on the study of the relationship between the deformation of the droplet and the surface force. Optical tweezers technology "non-contact" captures and clamps two micron-sized droplets for in-situ measurement of the interaction force between the droplets. This article focuses on the research status of the three quantitative measurement tools and the differences in their research systems, and prospects for future research on the interaction mechanism between droplets.

Key words: micron-sized droplets, interaction, optical tweezers, atomic force microscopes, surface force apparatus

摘要：

乳液广泛地应用于日常生活、医疗健康以及工业生产等众多领域。定量测量和研究乳液液滴间的相互作用力对于理解和揭示乳液的稳定机制以及开发制备功能型乳液具有重要的应用前景和学术价值。随着定量测量工具的发展，表面力仪、原子力显微镜、纳米光镊等使得定量研究乳液的稳定机制成为可能。表面力仪主要用来测量两个平坦表面间的相互作用力，待测的高分子或者功能材料需要涂敷在两个平面之间；原子力显微镜主要侧重研究液滴的形变和表面力之间的关系；纳米光镊技术“无接触”地捕获和夹持两个微米级液滴进行液滴间相互作用力的原位测量，主要研究的是液滴间相互作用和液滴表面前端距离的定量关系。本文重点阐述三种定量测量工具的研究现状及其研究体系，并对未来在液滴间相互作用机制研究方面进行展望。

关键词: 微米级液滴, 相互作用, 纳米光镊, 原子力显微镜, 表面力仪

CLC Number:

TQ 463

An CHEN, Guangsheng LUO, Jianhong XU. Research progress on quantitative exploration of the interaction mechanism between droplets[J]. CIESC Journal, 2021, 72(12): 5955-5964.

陈安, 骆广生, 徐建鸿. 液滴间相互作用机制定量探究的研究进展[J]. 化工学报, 2021, 72(12): 5955-5964.

Figures/Tables 8

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of common interaction forces between two suspended oil droplets in oil-in-water emulsion system

Fig.2 Schematic diagram of emulsion instability form[26]

Fig.3 Schematic diagram of the measuring principle of the surface force apparatus[30]

Fig.4 Schematic diagram of atomic force microscope measuring the interaction force between droplets (a); The dynamic interaction force curves between droplets varies with the moving distance of the photoelectric probe of the atomic force microscope under different surfactant concentrations [0.1 mmol/L(b)； 3.0 mmol/L(c)； 10.0 mmol/L(d)][10]

Fig.5 Atomic force microscopy measures the interaction force between two monodisperse oil droplets in an asphaltene solution[33]

Fig.6 Schematic diagram of the principle of capturing tiny particles by optical tweezers[35]

Fig.7 The interaction forces between SiO2 particles in NaCl and CTAB solutions[54] (The solid lines represent the calculation result of the theoretical model, and the hollow circles represent the experimental result of the optical tweezers measurement)

Table 1 Comparison of quantitative measurement tools［10， 30， 35， 50-53］

测量工具	适用体系	测量量级	优势	不足
表面力仪	两个平面	nN	直接测量出两平面间绝对分离距离	无法直接测量液滴间相互作用
原子力显微镜	20~200 μm液滴	nN	直接定量测量液滴间相互作用力，有成熟的理论模型	难以实现微米级液滴的捕获和准确测量
光镊	0.1~10 μm液滴/粒子	pN	直接定量测量微米级液滴间相互作用力	研究较少，缺乏理论模型支撑

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