Capillary rafts and their destabilization

ORAL

Abstract

Small objects trapped at an interface are very common in Nature (insects walking on water, ant rafts, bubbles or pollen at the water-air interface, membranes...) and are found in many multiphase industrial processes. The study of such particle-laden interfaces is therefore of practical as well as fundamental importance. Here we report experiments on the self-assembly of spherical particles into capillary rafts at an oil-water interface and elucidate how such rafts sink. We characterize different types of sinking behavior and show that it is possible to obtain ``armored droplets,'' whereby the sinking oil is encapsulated within a shell of particles.

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Authors

  • Suzie Protiere

    CNRS - Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, CNRS/IJLRA-Universite Paris 6

  • Manouk Abkarian

    CNRS/LCVN-Universite Montpellier 2, Universit\'e Montpellier 2

  • Jeffrey Aristoff

    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, MAE-Princeton University, Princeton University

  • Howard A. Stone

    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton University, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, MAE-Princeton University, Princeton university