| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/L51997/02 |
| Title: |
COLLOIDAL PARTICLES AT FLUID INTERFACES |
| Principal Investigator: |
quirke, Professor N |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Department: |
Chemistry |
| Organisation: |
Imperial College London |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 October 1998 |
Ends: |
13 May 1999 |
Value (£): |
50,380
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Complex fluids & soft solids |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Particles at fluid/fluid interfaces have both academic and industrial importance. The wettability of a particle at an interface determines the strength of attachment to the interface. Wettabilities can be crucially affected by the existence of a line tension (?) in the fluid/fluid/solid contact line around the particle, particularly if (?) is high and/or the particle is small. Few experimental values for such line tensions are available in the literature and those that do exist are widely disparate. The project, which is a melding of modelling, theory and experiment, is intended to provide both theoretical and experimental line tensions for colloidal and larger particles resting at fluid/fluid interfaces. Experimental line tensions will be determined using a film balance technique recently devised by us. We have shown that the contact angle of a liquid surface with a spherical particle does not change continuously to 0 or 180 degrees as ? is increased but that a wetting/drying transition occurs. The existence of such transitions will be investigated both experimentally and by computer modelling. Of particular interest will be systems where the particles reach diameters a few times that of molecules of the supporting liquid, where the simple concept of a contact line becomes ill-defined.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.imperial.ac.uk |