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Updated: Jun 4, 2025

Studying Surfactant Effects on Hydrate Crystallization at Oil-Water Interfaces Using a Low-Cost Integrated Modular Peltier Device
Published on: March 18, 2020
Flow-driven pattern formation during coacervation of xanthan gum with a cationic surfactant
Y Stergiou1,2, A Perrakis1,2, A De Wit3
1Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstr. 400, 01328 Dresden, Germany. g.stergiou@hzdr.de.
Abstract:
We experimentally demonstrate that the coacervation of a biopolymer can trigger a hydrodynamic instability when a coacervate is formed upon injection of a xanthan gum dispersion into a cationic surfactant (C14TAB) solution. The local increase of the viscosity due to the coacervate formation induces a viscous fingering instability. Three characteristic displacement regimes were observed: a viscous fingering dominated regime, a buoyancy-controlled "volcano" regime and a "fan"-like regime determined by the coacervate membrane dynamics. The dependence of the spatial properties of the viscous fingering pattern on the Péclet and Rayleigh numbers is investigated.
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