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Anionic Polymerization of an Amphiphilic Copolymer for Preparation of Block Copolymer Micelles Stabilized by π-π Stacking Interactions
Published on: October 10, 2016
Apollonian packing in polydisperse emulsions
Sylvie Kwok1, Robert Botet, Lewis Sharpnack
1Laboratoire Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés - Chemistry, Biology and Innovation (CBI) UMR8231, ESPCI Paris, CNRS, PSL*Research University, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France. sylvie.kwok@espci.fr.
Abstract:
We have discovered the existence of polydisperse high internal-phase-ratio emulsions (HIPE) in which the internal-phase droplets, present at 95% volume fraction, remain spherical and organise themselves according to Apollonian packing rules. These polydisperse HIPEs are formed by emulsifying oil dropwise in a surfactant-poor aqueous continuous phase. After stirring has ceased, their droplet size distributions begin to evolve spontaneously and continuously through coalescence towards well-defined power laws with the Apollonian exponent. Small-angle X-ray Scattering performed on aged HIPEs demonstrate that the droplet packing structure agrees with that of a numerically simulated random Apollonian packing. We argue that when such concentrated emulsions are allowed to evolve, the coalescing droplets must obey volume and sphericity conservation. This leads to a mechanism that differs from typical coalescence in dilute emulsions.
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