Nanoparticles influence droplet formation in a T-shaped microfluidic

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. © The Author(s) 2013.