Emulsion rheology and properties of polymerized high internal phase emulsions
High internal phase emulsions are highly concentrated emulsion systems consisting of a large volume of dispersed phase above 0.74. The rheological properties of high internal phase water-in-oil emulsions were measured conducting steady shear, oscillatory shear and creep/recovery experiments. It was found that the yield stress is inversely proportional to the drop size with the exponent of values between 1 and 2. Since the oil phase contains monomeric species, microcellular foams can easily be prepared from high internal phase emulsions. In this study, the microcellular foams combining a couple of thickeners into the conventional formulation of styrene and water system were investigated to understand the effect of viscosity ratio on cell size. Cell size variation on thickener concentration could be explained by a dimensional analysis between the capillary number and the viscosity ratio. Compression properties of foam are important end use properties in many practical applications. Crush strength and Young's modulus of microcellular foams polymerized from high internal phase emulsions were measured and compared from compression tests. Of the foams tested in this study, the foam prepared from the organoclay having reactive group as an oil phase thickener showed outstanding compression properties.
Rheological analysis of highly concentrated w/o emulsions
Abstract A series of highly concentrated lipophilic cosmetic emulsions were analysed, in order to determine their rheological and textural properties, as a function of their microstructure. The originality of this study lies in the methodology used, especially the shear-stress scanning analysis. The results of a very powerful and comprehensive dynamic rheological analysis suggest the existence of two critical volume fraction values: besides the “close-packed” value φc, a “slack-packed” value φ0, close to 0.60 could be demonstrated. It has been shown that the close-packed structure is stable under shear; in constrast, the slack-packed configuration, defined as φ0<φ<φc is unstable under shear. A comparison with theoretical models, especially that of Princen, showed good agreement and allowed the close-packed value φc to be defined more precisely as 0.67. The gap between 0.67 and 0.74 is probably indicative of a highly polydisperse distribution, as  confirmed by microscopic analysis. Flow experiments confirmed the validity of Princen‘s model.
Integrating Al with NiO nano honeycomb to realize an energetic material on silicon substrate
Nano energetic materials offer improved performance in energy release, ignition, and mechanical properties compared to their bulk or micro counterparts. In this study, the authors propose an approach to synthesize an Al/NiO based nano energetic material which is fully compatible with a microsystem. A two-dimensional NiO nano honeycomb is first realized by thermal oxidation of a Ni thin film deposited onto a silicon substrate by thermal evaporation. Then the NiO nano honeycomb is integrated with an Al that is deposited by thermal evaporation to realize an Al/NiO based nano energetic material. This approach has several advantages over previous investigations, such as lower ignition temperature, enhanced interfacial contact area, reduced impurities and Al oxidation, tailored dimensions, and easier integration into a microsystem to realize functional devices. The synthesized Al/NiO based nano energetic material is characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry.