Date
Mon, 15 Jul 2013
Time
10:15 - 11:15
Location
OCCAM Common Room (RI2.28)
Speaker
Scott Tsai
Organisation
Ryerson University

*****     PLEASE NOTE THIS SEMINAR TAKES PLACE ON MONDAY     *****

Ultralow interfacial tension mixtures have interfacial tensions that are 1,000 times, or more, lower than typical oil-water systems. Despite the recent utility of ultralow interfacial tension mixtures in industry and research, quantifying the interfacial tension remains challenging. Here I describe a technique that measures ultralow interfacial tensions by magnetically deflecting paramagnetic spheres in a co-flow microfluidic device. This method involves the tuning of the distance between the co-flowing interface and the magnetic field source, and observing the behavior of the magnetic particles as they approach the liquid-liquid interface--the particles either pass through or are trapped. I demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique for measuring very low interfacial tensions by testing solutions of different surfactant concentrations, and show that the results are comparable with measurements made using a spinning drop tensiometer.

*****     PLEASE NOTE THIS SEMINAR TAKES PLACE ON MONDAY     *****

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