Detachment energies of spheroidal particles from fluid-fluid interfaces

Gary B. Davies, Timm Krueger, Peter V. Coveney, Jens Harting

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

The energy required to detach a single particle from a fluid-fluid interface is an important parameter for designing certain soft materials, for example, emulsions stabilised by colloidal particles, colloidosomes designed for targeted drug delivery, and bio-sensors composed of magnetic particles adsorbed at interfaces. For a fixed particle volume, prolate and oblate spheroids attach more strongly to interfaces because they have larger particle-interface areas. Calculating the detachment energy of spheroids necessitates the difficult measurement of particle-liquid surface tensions, in contrast with spheres, where the contact angle suffices. We develop a simplified detachment energy model for spheroids which depends only on the particle aspect ratio and the height of the particle centre of mass above the fluid-fluid interface. We use lattice Boltzmann simulations to validate the model and provide quantitative evidence that the approach can be applied to simulate particle-stabilized emulsions, and highlight the experimental implications of this validation.
Original languageEnglish
Article number154902
JournalThe Journal of Chemical Physics
Volume141
Issue number15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Oct 2014

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