Crystal Comets: Dewetting During Emulsion Droplet Crystallization

Patrick T. Spicer; Richard W. Hartel

doi:10.1071/CH05119

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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Crystal Comets: Dewetting During Emulsion Droplet Crystallization

Patrick T. Spicer ^A ^C and Richard W. Hartel ^B

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Complex Fluids Research, Procter & Gamble Co., 8256 Union Centre Blvd., West Chester, OH 45069, USA.

^B Department of Food Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.

^C Corresponding author. Email: spicer.pt@pg.com

Australian Journal of Chemistry 58(9) 655-659 https://doi.org/10.1071/CH05119
Submitted: 13 May 2005 Accepted: 17 July 2005 Published: 21 September 2005

Abstract

Liquid oil emulsion droplets can violently dewet their own solid crystals during crystallization as a result of surfactant adsorption. The crystal shape formed is a function of the relative rates of dewetting and crystallization as controlled by surfactant adsorption, cooling rate, and lipid purity. For negligible dewetting rates, crystals nucleate and grow within the droplet. At similar crystallization and dewetting rates, the droplet is propelled around the continuous phase on a crystalline ‘comet tail’ much larger than the original droplet. Rapid dewetting causes the ejection of small discrete crystals across the droplet’s oil–water interface.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge fruitful discussions of this phenomenon with Eric Kaler (University of Delaware), David Quéré (College de France), Hans Riegler (Max Planck Institute), and David Weitz (Harvard University).

References

Crystal Comets: Dewetting During Emulsion Droplet Crystallization

Abstract

Acknowledgments

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