Nanoparticle-based emulsions for droplet microfluidics and applications
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Emulsions are a biphasic system with one liquid dispersed as droplets in a second immiscible liquid. They are an important class of materials found in many commercial products. They also play a critical role in emerging microfluidics applications for high throughput screening assays and material design. The objective of my thesis dissertation is to develop nanoparticle-based emulsion systems. My thesis covers two major application areas. The first addresses a key challenge in using emulsion drops as micro-reactors in droplet microfluidics, and the second uses emulsion without stabilizer towards the fabrication of nanocomposites. In the first part of my dissertation, I show that the use of amphiphilic nanoparticles (NPs) as a droplet stabilizer enhances the fidelity of droplet-based biochemical assays with the following advantages. 1) The use of NPs mitigates undesired cross-contamination of molecules between droplets. 2) NP-laden interfaces provide a rigid, solid-like surface to promote the growth of adherent cells, which cannot be achieved in surfactant systems. 3) NP-stabilized drops are more stable against break-up than surfactant-stabilized drops. Such stability increases the throughput of droplet interrogation process by at least three-fold. 4) The covalent conjugation of various molecules on droplet-stabilizing NP surfaces is simple, which opens up opportunities for creating customized fluid-fluid interfaces. In the second part of my dissertation, I present a stabilizer-free emulsion system to prevent the agglomeration of NPs during nanocomposite synthesis. I show that the single encapsulation of NP in the emulsion drop is critical for the fine dispersability of NPs in the nanocomposite. I also demonstrate an application of our method in improving the efficiency of photocatalytic nanocomposite for solar water splitting reactions.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2017 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Pan, Ming |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering. |
| Primary advisor | Heilshorn, Sarah |
| Primary advisor | Tang, Sindy (Sindy K.Y.) |
| Thesis advisor | Heilshorn, Sarah |
| Thesis advisor | Tang, Sindy (Sindy K.Y.) |
| Thesis advisor | Senesky, Debbie |
| Advisor | Senesky, Debbie |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Ming Pan. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2017. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2017 by Ming Pan
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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