The effect of volume fraction and impeller speed on the structure and drop size in aqueous/aqueous dispersions

On the diameter and size distributions of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA)-based microspheres

A fluid mechanics-based correlation for the average size of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) microspheres, prepared using a water-in-oil emulsion technique, is presented. The correlation is formulated based on the theory of turbulent dispersion and a non-dimensional Weber number. Measured average diameters of the BSA microspheres prepared in olive oil at different stirring speeds are used to construct the correlation formula. The correlation gives good agreement with experimentally measured average diameters for a wide range of Weber numbers. This correlation is particularly useful to the pharmaceutical industry for predicting the size of encapsulated microspheres used in drug delivery prior to microsphere preparation. The effect of additives on microsphere size was also explored. The average diameter of the BSA microspheres was doubled by the addition of a bioadherent vitelline protein B solution. In addition, a Rosin-Rammler statistical distribution function is shown to accurately represent the microsphere size distribution obtained at different stirring speeds.

Effect of Bending Rigidity and Interfacial Permeability on the Dynamical Behavior of Water-in-Water Emulsions

Phase separation in aqueous biopolymer mixtures results in the formation of an interface, separating two aqueous bulk phases. The properties of that interface are key parameters to understand and predict phenomena, such as the phase-separation process and deformation of droplets in a flow field. In these processes, the structures and sizes of the morphologies depend on the balance between viscous and interfacial forces. Normally, one assumes that the interfacial tension is the only important parameter regarding the interfacial forces. However, we will show that in these water-in-water emulsions, bending rigidity and interfacial permeability also play an important role. Spinning drop experiments show that at long time scales the interface is permeable to both dissolved biopolymers and water. From droplet relaxation experiments, we could conclude that, for shorter time scales, water is the only ingredient that can diffuse through the interface. Due to this permeability, these methods cannot be used to calculate the interfacial tension accurately, without taking into account the permeability of the interface. Including the permeability, we give a full description for the relaxation time of deformed droplets. From this description, the interfacial tension and the permeability of the interface can be deduced simultaneously. We also incorporate the permeability and the bending rigidity into the description of the kinetics of phase separation. From this theoretical description, we predict four different regimes to occur in the phase-separation process depending on the size of the domains. For the scaling of the domain size with time, we find an exponent of (1)/(4) for bending- and permeability-dominated coarsening, an exponent of (1)/(3) for bending-dominated coarsening, an exponent of (1)/(2) for interfacial tension- and permeability-dominated coarsening, and an exponent of 1 for interfacial tension-dominated coarsening. The crossover between the different regimes depends on two different critical radii, R(c), equal to (2k/gamma)(1/2) and R(lambda), equal to etalambda(eff). Taking values for the interfacial properties, we find these critical radii to be larger than a micrometer, indicating that both bending rigidity and permeability are of importance during phase separation.

Effect of Interfacial Permeability on Droplet Relaxation in Biopolymer-Based Water-in-Water Emulsions

In this paper, we show that for aqueous phase-separated biopolymer mixtures (water-in-water emulsions) both interfacial tension and permeability of the interface are important for the relaxation process of deformed droplets. We give an expression for the characteristic relaxation time that contains both contributions. With this description, the interfacial tension and the permeability can be deduced from cessation-of-flow experiments. The results show that for samples that are very close to the critical point the interfacial tension, calculated without taking into account the permeability, are overestimated significantly. For samples close to the critical point, the permeability has to be taken into account in the description for the relaxation time to get a reliable estimation of the interfacial tension. Our experiments show that for these systems the effective permeability is inversely proportional to the interfacial tension, lambda(eff) proportional, variant1/gamma, and proportional to the square of the interfacial thickness, lambda(eff) proportional, variant xi(2). We find that the permeability is related to an effective diffusion coefficient as D(eff) proportional, variant lambdagamma(eff). From this relation, we find that the diffusion coefficient is equal to 0.9.10(-9) m(2)/s, which is close to the self-diffusion coefficient of water; = 2.3.10(-9) m(2)/s. This indicates that only water diffuses through the interface, and the diffusion coefficient is independent of the composition of the system for the concentration regime that is used.

Interfacial Tension in Phase-Separated Gelatin/Dextran Aqueous Mixtures

The effect of solute concentrations on interfacial tension was investigated in phase-separated mixtures of dextran and gelatin over a range of concentrations that covered different tie-lines and different positions on one tie-line. The investigations were carried out using equilibrated gelatin-rich and dextran-rich phases in a computer-controlled Couette device at 40 degrees C (above the gelation point of gelatin) and interfacial tensions were measured using the retracting drop method. The results show that the interfacial tension can be related to the length of the tie-line or to the difference in the concentration of dextran (or gelatin) in the separated phases. Interfacial tension increases as either of these parameters increases. For concentrations lying on any single tie-line, the interfacial tension is constant and independent of the concentration of biopolymers. Also, the addition of small amounts of low molecular weight dextran to a dextran-rich phase does not significantly affect the interfacial tension between the gelatine-rich and dextran-rich phases. Experimental results were also compared with theoretical predictions of the interfacial tension using a Flory-Huggins based analysis of the measured tie-line data. Reasonable agreement was found between predicted and measured values, indicating that this approach captures the basic physics of the system.