Size-Dependent Phase Separation in Emulsion Droplets.

Phase separation occurs in emulsion droplets containing poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA), glycerol, and ethanol to form a glycerol-in-PEGDA structure, and the phase separation process is found to depend on the droplet size. The mechanism of this size-dependent phase separation is dependent on the droplet sizes changing the phase separation time by changing the evaporation speed of mutual solvent ethanol, and the relationship between the separation time T and the droplet diameter D is derived as T≈D2 , which has been validated by experiment results. According to this finding, the structures of the droplets can be designed by applying UV curing at different stages of the phase separation, and the monodispersity of droplets is necessary to achieve polymerized particles with the same structure.