Understanding Colloidal Adhesion in Polymer Surfactant Emulsions

Abstract

Attractive interactions between drops in which aggregation or adhesion occurs, rather than coalescence, govern the formation of microstructures that control the phase behaviour, stability, rheology and most importantly function of formulated products (e.g., food, personal care products, pharmaceutical formulations). These products are often multi-component emulsions where interactions between additives can mediate adhesion in complicated ways. The overarching objective of this thesis was to understand how polymer-surfactant (PS) complexes mediate adhesive interactions, with a focus given to the development of a novel microfluidic platform capable of investigating these systems using high thr..