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Light-Driven Spatiotemporal Pickering Emulsion Droplet Manipulation Enabled by Plasmonic Hybrid Microgels

Guan, Xin; Cheng, Guangyao; Ho, Yi Ping; Binks, Bernard P.; Ngai, To

Authors

Xin Guan

Guangyao Cheng

Yi Ping Ho

To Ngai



Abstract

The past decades have witnessed the development of various stimuli-responsive materials with tailored functionalities, enabling droplet manipulation through external force fields. Among different strategies, light exhibits excellent flexibility for contactless control of droplets, particularly in three-dimensional space. Here, we present a facile synthesis of plasmonic hybrid microgels based on the electrostatic heterocoagulation between cationic microgels and anionic Au nanoparticles. The hybrid microgels are effective stabilizers of oil-in-water Pickering emulsions. In addition, the laser irradiation on Au nanoparticles creats a “cascade effect” to thermally responsive microgels, which triggers a change in microgel wettability, resulting in microgel desorption and emulsion destabilization. More importantly, the localized heating generated by a focused laser induces the generation of a vapor bubble inside oil droplets, leading to the formation of a novel air-in-oil-in-water (A/O/W) emulsion. These A/O/W droplets are able to mimic natural microswimmers in an aqueous environment by tracking the motion of a laser spot, thus achieving on-demand droplet merging and chemical communication between isolated droplets. Such proposed systems are expected to extend the applications of microgel-stabilized Pickering emulsions for substance transport, programmed release and controlled catalytic reactions.

Citation

Guan, X., Cheng, G., Ho, Y. P., Binks, B. P., & Ngai, T. (2023). Light-Driven Spatiotemporal Pickering Emulsion Droplet Manipulation Enabled by Plasmonic Hybrid Microgels. Small, 19(47), Article 2304207. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202304207

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 19, 2022
Online Publication Date Jul 25, 2023
Publication Date Nov 22, 2023
Deposit Date Feb 18, 2024
Publicly Available Date Feb 22, 2024
Journal Small
Print ISSN 1613-6810
Electronic ISSN 1613-6829
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 19
Issue 47
Article Number 2304207
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202304207
Keywords Light-driven droplet manipulation; Photothermal effect; Pickering emulsion; Plasmonic hybrid microgels
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4348686

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Copyright Statement
© 2023 The Authors. Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.




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