View source for Amphiphilic Crescent-Moon-Shaped Microparticles Formed by Selective Adsorption of Colloids

Original Entry by Andrew Capulli, AP225 Fall 2011

== Reference ==
"Amphiphilic Crescent-Moon-Shaped Microparticles Formed by Selective Adsorption of Colloids" S.-H. Kim, A. Abbaspourrad, and D. A. Weitz. Journal of the American Chemical Society 133(14), 5516-5524 (2011). 

== Introduction: Motivation ==
There are numerous amphiphilic surfactant molecules available in a wide variety of hydrophilic-hydrophobic balances, shapes, sizes etc as pointed out by the authors. However, as amphiphilic microparticles have become of interest due to their potential use as pigments in display devices and as mentioned by the authors, microparticles can be used as the "building blocks to construct photonic structures through directional interactions." However, ''surfactant'' microparticles are of particular interest due to their amphiphilic nature and potential for added increased strength of emulsion. While the authors note that the science behind the creation of such amphiphilic particles is not necessarily novel in this research, the field itself is new and like how their are numerous tunable molecular surfactants (in particular numerous shapes) there is a need in the mircoparticle field for such shape diversity and study into the effects thereof. Dumbbell, mushroom, and spherical shaped amphiphilic microparticles have been studied but there is a need to investigate more and in this methods paper the authors do just that, presenting a new way to form "crescent" (half moon shelled) shaped amphiphilic microparticles.   

== Summary of Main Experimentation ==
The paper is essentially a methods paper and the details of the setup are described more thoroughly. Here I summarize them:
Weitz et. al. use a microfluidic device (theta injection) to produce their amphiphilic microparticles. Fluorocarbon oil (FC-77) and ethoxylated trimethylolpropane triacrylate (ETPTA) are 'injected' into an aqueous solution via their theta capillary device (see Figure 1 below). Because FC-77 has a higher energy with water than ETPTA, the ETPTA drop will spread around the FC-77 drop. As the authors describe the behavior of the spreading (how much the ETPTA spreads or wets the FC-77 drop) is dependent on the make up of the aqueous solution used as the continuous phase of the set up (blue in Figure 1). 

[[Weitz Fig1.jpg]]

To give some perspective, full spreading is reportedly observed in 3 wt% PVA solution while only partial spreading (more so drop separation) is observed in 1 wt% Pluronic F-108. Essentially, spreading goes as:[[Image:Weitz Crescent 1.jpg]], where S is the spreading parameter which is dependent on the interfacial tension between phases j and k. The spreading parameter as described by the authors, "reflects the relative values of the surface energies, and the propensity of one fluid to spread on another."  

== Connection to Soft Matter==

''More Thoughts''