Comparison of emulsification devices for the production of miniemulsions
Résumé
Droplets generated using ultrasonication, the rotor-stator, and static mixers have been investigated in terms of power and energy consumption, droplet distributions, and shear rates. It was observed that with energy costs being of similar orders of magnitude, the static mixers imposed less shear on the system making them the optimal choice for miniemulsification. Similarly, the absolute widths of the distributions for droplets generated with the sonicator and rotor-stator were larger than those generated with the static mixers and during polymerization underwent secondary nucleation.