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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Glass-Based Devices to Generate Drops and Emulsions
Published on: April 5, 2022
Droplet coalescence process under electric fields in an immiscible polymer blend
Kohei Aida1, Yang Ho Na, Tomoyuki Nagaya
1Division of Applied Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8628, Japan.
Abstract:
The droplet coalescence process was investigated in immiscible polymer blends when subjected to a step electric field. We present sequential three-dimensional images captured during the process with a confocal scanning laser microscope. Characteristic lengths parallel and perpendicular to the electric field were obtained from the spatial correlation functions of the images. It was found that the droplet growth rate increased with both the electric field and the volume fraction of droplets. A function describing the droplet growth rate was derived from theory using the "hierarchical model" and was found to be in good agreement with the experimental results.
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