Olalla Consulting, in collaboration with the Royal Society of Chemistry, launches its new industry-focused webinar series this September.
We’re thrilled to welcome Professor Bernard P. Binks, FRS (University of Hull) as our first speaker. He’ll explore how solid particles behave at fluid interfaces and share insights on modern applications—from powdered oils and dry water to smart, responsive emulsions.
The behaviour of small solid particles at liquid interfaces will be introduced. Intrigued by little activity globally since the pioneering paper by Pickering in 1907, we decided to systematically investigate the influence of particle hydrophobicity on their arrangement at planar oil-water interfaces and their stabilisation of emulsions for pure particles, both inorganic and organic. This led on to studying the preparation and properties of particle-stabilised foams and subsequently how particles adsorb at oil-oil, water-water and air-oil interfaces. New materials containing assembled particles at fluid interfaces resulted including dry water, powdered oil, oil foams and liquid marbles. Recently, we have been studying catalysis (chemical and bio-) in Pickering emulsions as a novel platform for synthesis.
It is of great interest to ask what happens when surfactant and particles are present simultaneously, this being the case in many commercial formulations in the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. We have investigated emulsions and foams in the case of like charge on surfactant and particles and in the case of opposite charge. Stimuli-responsive dispersed systems result when either or both of the surfactant and particles is stimulus-responsive.
