Stimuli-Responsive Behavior of Bicontinuous Interfacially Jammed Emulsion Gels (bijels) with Magnetic Ellipsoidal Colloids: Insights from Lattice Boltzmann Simulations

Bijels have garnered attention for stability, renewable sourcing, and potential of bottom up manufacturing of technologies such as membranes, catalyst supports, and pharmaceuticals. Stimuli response can add additional functionality to this material, enhancing its versatility as a platform for functional applications. Our Lattice Boltzmann simulations investigate the stimuli response of bijels stabilized with ellipsoidal magnetic particles. We hypothesize that competing forces between field alignment and interface energy minimization induce dynamic bijel microstructure changes. Parameters like domain size, curvature, nematic order, and particle velocities are quantified during stimuli response. We see the domain size initially decreases due to particle movement on the interface, followed by an increase. Order degree upon field application influences the degree of bijel deformation. Particle velocities strongly correlate with field strength, suggesting the role of order and reordering speed in bijel deformation. Comparative analyses with spherical particle-stabilized bijels show no such changes, supporting our hypothesis. We acknowledge the National Science Foundation under NSF Award OIA-2131996 and DMR-1944942 for funding this project. Clemson University is acknowledged for generous allotment of compute time on the Palmetto cluster.