1. Micro Wax Disks: Fabrication and Characterization
Zhengdong Cheng, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University
Colloidal disks play an important role in petroleum engineering, cosmetic products and biological studies, but there is a plenty of space to fill in the colloidal disk behavior studies. Therefore, we proposed a systematic plan to explore the colloidal disk dispersions, including an experimental platform producing uniform disk particle, and a set of probe techniques for rheological, hydrodynamic and self-assembly behavior study. We have successfully generated uniform microdisk particles using electrospray of melt -eicosene wax. By tuning the concentration of surfactants, different aspect ratio colloidal particles could be obtained. The disk particles can further assemble into column phase (right bottom) or some irregular aggregates (left bottom), showing some evidence of crystalline packing at high concentration, and displaying liquid crystal characteristics (middle) of eicosene when dried out. Based on these fulfillments, a series of studies have been or will be launched, including:
Self-assembling and phase transition of colloidal wax disks
Hydrodynamics of colloidal disks in microfluidic chips
Interaction between colloidal disks by holographic laser tweezers