Rheology of attractive emulsions

Surface hydrodynamics of viscoelastic fluids and soft solids: Surfing bulk rheology on capillary and Rayleigh waves

From the recent advent of the new soft-micro technologies, the hydrodynamic theory of surface modes propagating on viscoelastic bodies has reinvigorated this field of technology with interesting predictions and new possible applications, so recovering its scientific interest very limited at birth to the academic scope. Today, a myriad of soft small objects, deformable meso- and micro-structures, and macroscopically viscoelastic bodies fabricated from colloids and polymers are already available in the materials catalogue. Thus, one can envisage a constellation of new soft objects fabricated by-design with a functional dynamics based on the mechanical interplay of the viscoelastic material with the medium through their interfaces. In this review, we recapitulate the field from its birth and theoretical foundation in the latest 1980s up today, through its flourishing in the 90s from the prediction of extraordinary Rayleigh modes in coexistence with ordinary capillary waves on the surface of viscoelastic fluids, a fact first confirmed in experiments by Dominique Langevin and me with soft gels [Monroy and Langevin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3167 (1998)]. With this observational discovery at sight, we not only settled the theory previously formulated a few years before, but mainly opened a new field of applications with soft materials where the mechanical interplay between surface and bulk motions matters. Also, new unpublished results from surface wave experiments performed with soft colloids are reported in this contribution, in which the analytic methods of wave surfing synthetized together with the concept of coexisting capillary-shear modes are claimed as an integrated tool to insightfully scrutinize the bulk rheology of soft solids and viscoelastic fluids. This dedicatory to the figure of Dominique Langevin includes an appraisal of the relevant theoretical aspects of the surface hydrodynamics of viscoelastic fluids, and the coverage of the most important experimental results obtained during the three decades of research on this field.

Advances and challenges in the rheology of concentrated emulsions and nanoemulsions

We review advances that have been made in the rheology of concentrated emulsions and nanoemulsions, which can serve as model soft materials that have highly tunable viscoelastic properties at droplet volume fractions near and above the glass transition and jamming point. As revealed by experiments, simulations, and theoretical models, interfacial and positional structures of droplets can depend on the applied flow history and osmotic pressure that an emulsion has experienced, thereby influencing its key rheological properties such as viscoelastic moduli, yield stress and strain, and flow behavior. We emphasize studies of monodisperse droplets, since these have led to breakthroughs in the fundamental understanding of dispersed soft matter. This review also covers the rheological properties of attractive emulsions, which can exhibit a dominant elasticity even at droplet volume fractions far below maximal random jamming of hard spheres.

Particles adsorbed at various non-aqueous liquid-liquid interfaces

Particles adsorbed at liquid interfaces are commonly used to stabilise water-oil Pickering emulsions and water-air foams. The fundamental understanding of the physics of particles adsorbed at water-air and water-oil interfaces is improving significantly due to novel techniques that enable the measurement of the contact angle of individual particles at a given interface. The case of non-aqueous interfaces and emulsions is less studied in the literature. Non-aqueous liquid-liquid interfaces in which water is replaced by other polar solvents have properties similar to those of water-oil interfaces. Nanocomposites of non-aqueous immiscible polymer blends containing inorganic particles at the interface are of great interest industrially and consequently more work has been devoted to them. By contrast, the behaviour of particles adsorbed at oil-oil interfaces in which both oils are immiscible and of low dielectric constant (ε<3) is scarcely studied. Hydrophobic particles are required to stabilise these oil-oil emulsions due to their irreversible adsorption, high interfacial activity and elastic shell behaviour.

Flow-induced nanostructuring of gelled emulsions

Although the phase behavior of emulsions has been thoroughly investigated, the effect of flow on emulsion morphology, which is relevant for many applications, is far from being fully elucidated. Here, we investigate an emulsion based on two common nonionic surfactants in a range of water concentration where complex and diverse microstructures are found at rest, such as multilamellar and bicontinuous phases. In spite of such complexity, once subjected to shear flow, all the emulsions investigated are characterized by thinning filaments which eventually break up into a concentrated suspension of micro-sized water-based droplets dispersed in a continuous oil phase. The so-formed droplets tend to align in string-like structures. The emulsions exhibit a yield stress, whose value can be estimated by the plug-core velocity profiles in pressure-driven capillary flow, thus providing evidence of weakly attractive interdroplet interactions. The latter are consistent with droplet clustering and percolation observed at rest. These results can also be relevant to the flow behavior of other liquid-liquid systems, such as polymer blends, where the flow-induced microstructure is under debate as well.

Microstructure and Elastic Properties of Colloidal Gel Foams

Colloidal gel foams are composed of a continuous, attractive particle network that surrounds and interconnects dispersed bubbles. Here, we investigate their stability, morphology, and elasticity as a function of foaming intensity, surfactant concentration and hydrophobicity, pH, and colloid volume fraction. Upon optimizing these parameters, highly stable colloidal gel foams are created. Within this stability region, the specific interfacial area between the continuous (colloidal gel) and dispersed (bubble) phase can be varied over 2 orders of magnitude leading to a concomitant increase in storage modulus, which scales nearly linearly with specific interfacial area. Our observations provide design guidelines for attractive-particle stabilized foams that enable the programmable assembly of architected porous materials.

Non-monotonic dependence of Pickering emulsion gel rheology on particle volume fraction

The microstructure of Pickering emulsion gels features a tenuous network of faceted droplets, bridged together by shared monolayers of particles. In this investigation, we use standard oscillatory rheometry in conjunction with confocal microscopy to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the role particle bridged interfaces have on the rheology of Pickering emulsion gels. The zero-shear elastic modulus of Pickering emulsion gels shows a non-monotonic dependence on particle loading, with three separate regimes of power-law and linear gel strengthening, and subsequent gel weakening. The transition from power-law to linear scaling is found to coincide with a peak in the volume fraction of particles that participate in bridging, which we indirectly calculate using measureable quantities, and the transition to gel weakening is shown to result from a loss in network connectivity at high particle loadings. These observations are explained via a simple representation of how Pickering emulsion gels arise from an initial population of partially-covered droplets. Based on these considerations, we propose a combined variable related to the initial droplet coverage, to be used in reporting and rationalizing the rheology of Pickering emulsion gels. We demonstrate the applicability of this variable with Pickering emulsions prepared at variable fluid ratios and with different-sized colloidal particles. The results of our investigation have important implications for many technological applications that utilize solid stabilized multi-phase emulsions and require a priori knowledge or engineering of their flow characteristics.

Rheological reversibility and long-term stability of repulsive and attractive nanoemulsion gels

The storage modulus (G′) of a canola oil nanoemulsion gel depends on the storage time and SDS emulsifier concentration.

Droplet microfluidics in (bio)chemical analysis

Droplet microfluidics may soon change the paradigm of performing chemical analyses and related instrumentation.

Crossover between entropic and interfacial elasticity and osmotic pressure in uniform disordered emulsions

We develop a simple predictive model of the osmotic pressure Π and linear shear elastic modulus G of uniform disordered emulsions that includes energetic contributions from entropy and interfacial deformation. This model yields a smooth crossover between an entropically dominated G ∼ kBT/a(3) for droplet volume fractions ϕ below a jamming threshold for spheres, ϕc, and an interfacially dominated G ∼ σ/a for ϕ above ϕc, where a and σ are the undeformed radius and interfacial tension, respectively, of a droplet and T is the temperature. We show that this model reduces to the known ϕ-dependent jamming behavior G(ϕ) ∼ (σ/a)ϕ(ϕ - ϕc) as T → 0 for ϕ > ϕc of disordered uniform emulsions, and it also produces the known divergence for disordered hard spheres G(ϕ) ∼ (kBT/a(3))ϕ/(ϕc - ϕ) for ϕ < ϕc when σ → ∞. We compare predictions of this model to data for disordered uniform microscale emulsion droplets, corrected for electrostatic repulsions. The smooth crossover captures the observed trends in G and Π below ϕc better than existing analytic models of disordered emulsions, which do not make predictions below ϕc. Moreover, the model predicts that entropic contributions to the shear modulus can become more significant for nanoemulsions as compared to microscale emulsions.

Influence of emulsifier concentration on nanoemulsion gelation

Nanoemulsion gels are a new class of soft materials that manifest stronger elasticity even at lower dispersed phase volume fraction. In this work, gelation in 40 wt % canola oil-in-water nanoemulsions was investigated as a function of emulsifier type (anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) or nonionic Tween 20) and concentration. It was observed that the liquid nanoemulsions transformed into viscoelastic gels at a specific concentration range of SDS, whereas no gelation was observed for Tween 20. The apparent viscosity, yield stress, and storage modulus of the nanogels increased with SDS concentration until 15 times critical micelle concentration (CMC), thereafter decreased steadily as the gelation weakened beginning 20 CMC. Three regimes of colloidal interactions in the presence of emulsifier were proposed. (1) Repulsive gelation: at low SDS concentration (0.5-2 times CMC) the repulsive charge cloud around the nanodroplets acted as interfacial shell layer that significantly increased the effective volume fraction of the dispersed phase (ϕ(eff)). When ϕ(eff) became comparable to the volume fraction required for maximal random jamming, nanoemulsions formed elastic gels. (2) Attractive gelation: as the SDS concentration increased to 5-15 times CMC, ϕ(eff) dropped due to charge screening by more counterions from SDS, but depletion attractions generated by micelles in the continuous phase led to extensive droplet aggregation which immobilized the continuous phase leading to stronger gel formation. (3) Decline in gelation due to oscillatory structural forces (OSF): at very high SDS concentration (20-30 time CMC), structural forces were manifested due to the layered-structuring of excess micelles in the interdroplet regions resulting in loss of droplet aggregation. Tween 20 nanoemulsions, on the other hand, did not show repulsive gelation due to lack of charge cloud, while weak depletion attraction and early commencement of OSF regime leading to liquid-like behavior at all concentrations. The nanogels possess great potential for use in low-fat foods, pharmaceuticals and cosmetic products.

Coalescence in concentrated Pickering emulsions under shear

We have investigated the rheology of concentrated oil-in-water emulsions stabilised by silanised silica nanoparticles. The emulsions behave like highly elastic solids in response to small, uniform strains. They become unstable and begin to break down, however, on yielding. We show that the emulsion elasticity is correlated with the salt concentration in the water and hence the particle aggregation in emulsions at a given drop volume fraction. A supporting observation is that destabilisation is favoured by minimising the attractive interactions between the particles. Microscopic observations revealed that coalesced drops have anisotropic shapes and wrinkled surfaces, direct evidence of the interfacial particle layer acting like a mechanical barrier to bulk emulsion destabilisation.

Impact of attractive interactions on the rheology of dense athermal particles

Using numerical simulations, the rheological response of an athermal assembly of soft particles with tunable attractive interactions is studied in the vicinity of jamming. At small attractions, a fragile solid develops and a finite yield stress is measured. Moreover, the measured flow curves have unstable regimes, which lead to persistent shear banding. These features are rationalized by establishing a link between the rheology and the interparticle connectivity, which also provides a minimal model to describe the flow curves.

Block copolymers at interfaces: interactions with physiological media

Triblock copolymers (also known as Pluronics or poloxamers) are biocompatible molecules composed of hydrophobic and hydrophilic blocks with different lengths. They have received much attention recently owing to their applicability for targeted delivery of hydrophobic compounds. Their unique molecular structure facilitates the formation of dynamic aggregates which are able to transport lipid soluble compounds. However, these structures can be unstable and tend to solubilize within the blood stream. The use of nanoemulsions as carriers for the lipid soluble compounds appears as a new alternative with improved protection against physiological media. The interfacial behavior of block copolymers is directly related to their peculiar molecular structure and further knowledge could provide a rational use in the design of poloxamer-stabilized nanoemulsions. This review aims to combine the new insights gained recently into the interfacial properties of block copolymers and their performance in nanoemulsions. Direct studies dealing with the interactions with physiological media are also reviewed in order to address issues relating metabolism degradation profiles. A better understanding of the physico-chemical and interfacial properties of block copolymers will allow their manipulation to modulate lipolysis, hence allowing the rational design of nanocarriers with efficient controlled release.

Timescales in creep and yielding of attractive gels

The stress-induced yielding scenario of colloidal gels is investigated under rough boundary conditions by means of rheometry coupled with local velocity measurements. Under an applied shear stress σ, the fluidization of gels made of attractive carbon black particles dispersed in a mineral oil is shown to involve a previously unreported shear rate response γ dot above(t) characterized by two well-defined and separated timescales τc and τf. First γ dot above decreases as a weak power law strongly reminiscent of the primary creep observed in numerous crystalline and amorphous solids, coined the "Andrade creep". We show that the bulk deformation remains homogeneous at the micron scale, which demonstrates that whether plastic events take place or whether any shear transformation zone exists, such phenomena occur at a smaller scale. As a key result of this paper, the duration τc of this creep regime decreases as a power law of the viscous stress, defined as the difference between the applied stress and the yield stress σc, i.e. τc ∼ (σ - σc)(-β), with β = 2-3 depending on the gel concentration. The end of this first regime is marked by a jump of the shear rate by several orders of magnitude, while the gel slowly slides as a solid block experiencing strong wall slip at both walls, despite rough boundary conditions. Finally, a second sudden increase of the shear rate is concomitant with the full fluidization of the material which ends up being homogeneously sheared. The corresponding fluidization time τf robustly follows an exponential decay with the applied shear stress, i.e. τf = τ0 exp(-σ/σ0), as already reported for smooth boundary conditions. Varying the gel concentration C in a systematic fashion shows that the parameter σ0 and the yield stress σc exhibit similar power-law dependences with C. Finally, we highlight a few features that are common to attractive colloidal gels and to solid materials by discussing our results in the framework of theoretical approaches of solid rupture (kinetic, fiber bundle, and transient network models).

Evaluation and correction for optical scattering variations in laser speckle rheology of biological fluids

Biological fluids fulfill key functionalities such as hydrating, protecting, and nourishing cells and tissues in various organ systems. They are capable of these versatile tasks owing to their distinct structural and viscoelastic properties. Characterizing the viscoelastic properties of bio-fluids is of pivotal importance for monitoring the development of certain pathologies as well as engineering synthetic replacements. Laser Speckle Rheology (LSR) is a novel optical technology that enables mechanical evaluation of tissue. In LSR, a coherent laser beam illuminates the tissue and temporal speckle intensity fluctuations are analyzed to evaluate mechanical properties. The rate of temporal speckle fluctuations is, however, influenced by both optical and mechanical properties of tissue. Therefore, in this paper, we develop and validate an approach to estimate and compensate for the contributions of light scattering to speckle dynamics and demonstrate the capability of LSR for the accurate extraction of viscoelastic moduli in phantom samples and biological fluids of varying optical and mechanical properties.

Emulsion droplet formation in coflowing liquid streams

We investigate emulsion droplet formation in coflowing liquid streams based on a computational fluid dynamics simulation using the volume-of-fluid method to track the interface motion with a focus on the dynamics of the dripping and jetting regimes. The simulations reproduce dripping, widening jetting and narrowing jetting simultaneously in a coflowing microchannel in agreement with the experimental observations in this work. The result indicates that the dripping regime, rather than the jetting regime, is a favorable way to producing monodisperse emulsions. We find that, in dripping and widening jetting regimes, the breakup of a drop is induced by higher pressure in the neck which squeezes liquid into the lower-pressure region in subsequent and primary droplets, while the breakup in the narrowing jetting regime is due to slow velocity at the back end of the trough with respect to the leading end of the trough. In addition, the capillary number of the outer fluid and the Weber number of the inner fluid not only determine the drop diameter and generation rate but also the regime of emulsification.