Department of Chemistry , King's College London , SE1 1DB London , United Kingdom.
Centro de Estudios Interdisciplinarios de la Fisica , Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas , Caracas 1020A , Venezuela.
ACS Nano. 2019 Aug 27;13(8):9498-9503. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.9b04454. Epub 2019 Aug 6.
Understanding the complexity of fragmentation processes is essential for regulating intercellular communication in mechanistic biology and developing bottom-up approaches in a large range of multiphase flow processes. In this context, self-fragmentation proceeds without any external mechanical energy input, allowing one to create efficiently micro- and nanodroplets. Here we examine self-fragmentation in emulsion nanodroplets stabilized by solid particles with different surface features. Mesoscopic modeling and accelerated dynamics simulations allow us to overcome the limitations of atomistic simulations and offer detailed insight into the interplay between the evolution of the droplet shape and the particle finite-size effects at the interface. We show that finite-size nanoparticles play an role in the necking breakup, behaving like nanoscale razors, and affect strongly the thermodynamic properties of the system. The role played by the particles during self-fragmentation might be of relevance to multifunctional biomaterial design and tuning of signaling pathways in mechanistic biology.
理解碎片化过程的复杂性对于调节机械生物学中的细胞间通讯以及在多种多相流过程中开发自下而上的方法至关重要。在这种情况下，自碎片化不需要任何外部机械能输入，从而可以有效地制造微滴和纳米滴。在这里，我们研究了由具有不同表面特征的固体颗粒稳定的乳液纳米液滴的自碎片化。介观建模和加速动力学模拟克服了原子模拟的限制，提供了对液滴形状演化和界面处颗粒有限尺寸效应相互作用的详细了解。我们表明，有限尺寸的纳米颗粒在颈缩断裂中起着重要作用，表现得像纳米尺度的剃刀，并强烈影响系统的热力学性质。在自碎片化过程中颗粒所起的作用可能与多功能生物材料设计和机械生物学中的信号通路调谐有关。
