Polymer-Wrapped Oil Droplets and Polymer Particles with Complex Curvilinear Polyhedral Geometries by Surfactant-Driven Elastocapillary Buckling of Polymer Capsules.

ABSTRACT: Surfactants have been widely used to tune interfacial tensions in colloidal dispersions, resulting in phenomena such as wetting/dewetting, emulsification, and foaming. In this study, we report that adding micromolar concentrations of surfactants to aqueous dispersions of thin, deformable polymer microcapsules partially filled with droplets of oil induces complex shape changes in both the capsules and the encapsulated oil droplets. Using video microscopy and confocal microscopy, we observed the evolution of complex, anisotropic shapes with apparent six-, five-, four- and 3-fold symmetries in the presence of added surfactant and identified several factors influencing these shape changes and the resulting distribution of shapes, including surfactant concentration and charge, polymer capsule d

SUBMITTER: Guo X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12613320 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature