Ratajczak Filip, Jameel Bassam, Bielas Rafał, Józefczak Arkadiusz
Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 2, 61-614 Poznań, Poland.
Sensors (Basel). 2024 Sep 2;24(17):5710. doi: 10.3390/s24175710.
Capsules with microparticle shells became of great interest due to their potential in many fields. Those capsules can be fabricated at high temperatures from particle-stabilized emulsions (Pickering emulsions) by sintering together particles that cover droplets. One of the problems with such an approach is accurately controlling whether particles are already sintered and creating the rigid capsule shell of a capsule. Here, we propose using a non-destructive ultrasound method for monitoring Pickering emulsion-based capsules prepared using heating under an alternating magnetic field. The polyethylene microparticles that were responsive to temperatures higher than 112 °C were used as droplet stabilizers together with iron oxide nanoparticles. During the coalescence of the droplets, facilitated by an external electric field, the ultrasonic attenuation increased, giving evidence that the ultrasound method detects structural changes in Pickering emulsions. The main change was the difference in the droplets' size, which was also observed via optical microscopy. The attenuation of ultrasound increased even more when measured after magnetic heating for the same concentration of particle stabilizers. Simultaneously, the values of ultrasonic velocity did not exhibit similar variety. The results show that the values of the attenuation coefficient can be used for a quantitative evaluation of the capsule formation process.
具有微粒壳的胶囊因其在许多领域的潜力而备受关注。这些胶囊可以在高温下由颗粒稳定乳液(皮克林乳液)通过烧结覆盖液滴的颗粒来制备。这种方法的问题之一是精确控制颗粒是否已经烧结以及形成胶囊的刚性胶囊壳。在这里,我们提出使用一种无损超声方法来监测在交变磁场下加热制备的基于皮克林乳液的胶囊。对高于112°C的温度有响应的聚乙烯微粒与氧化铁纳米颗粒一起用作液滴稳定剂。在外部电场促进液滴聚结的过程中,超声衰减增加,这表明超声方法检测到了皮克林乳液中的结构变化。主要变化是液滴尺寸的差异,这也通过光学显微镜观察到。对于相同浓度的颗粒稳定剂,在磁加热后测量时,超声衰减增加得更多。同时,超声速度值没有表现出类似的变化。结果表明,衰减系数值可用于胶囊形成过程的定量评估。