Making Emulsions

Rene Sanjuan-Galindo
Enrique Soto, Gabriel Ascanio
Roberto Zenit  
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

In these images we show the process through which an emulsion is formed. An emulsion is a mixture of liquid drops suspended in another liquid.

In the process to disperse a viscous oil in water in a stirred tank, filaments are produced before droplets became formed. The impeller blades drive the oil and pushed it radially into the liquid bulk. In this step, filaments suffer elongation due to the fluid forces that make them thinner. This set of photographs were obtained using a high speed camera, it can be noticed that filaments are highly unstable and easily deformed, what induces that breakage occurs unexpectedly. The broken filaments recoil at the time they are dispersed and finally droplets are produced.  

Reporters and Editors

Reporters may freely use this image. Credit: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) (2010).