Serra Christophe, Berton Nicolas, Bouquey Michel, Prat Laurent, Hadziioannou Georges
Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Polymères pour les Hautes Technologies-CNRS UMR 7165, ECPM-ULP Strasbourg, 25 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg cedex 2, France.
Langmuir. 2007 Jul 3;23(14):7745-50. doi: 10.1021/la063289s. Epub 2007 May 27.
Monodisperse and size-controlled spherical polymer particles were synthesized by in situ photopolymerization of O/W monomer emulsions. Monomer droplets were produced without surfactant or pretreatment at a needle tip in a simplified axisymmetric microfluidic device. The effect of the viscosity of the continuous phase on the particle size was studied. The system operated in the dripping mode, at a low Reynolds number. A dimensionless master curve describes the particle diameter as a function of the needle inner diameter as well as velocity and viscosity ratios of continuous and dispersed phases. An empirical law predicts the particle size. The normalized particle diameter depends upon the ratio of the capillary numbers of continuous and dispersed phases with an exponent equal to -0.22.
