Breaking the mould: UoH scientists create reconfigurable emulsions with liquid crystals

The emulsion droplets can be reshaped by fusing in a controlled way, which acts as versatile building blocks for reconfigurable emulsions, which are important for microfluidics, droplet encapsulation and cargo delivery

Hyderabad: Conventional emulsions used in cosmetics, foods, medicines and industries are made of multi-component immiscible isotropic liquids.

Prof Surajit Dhara’s group in the School of Physics, University of Hyderabad (UoH), and his collaborators have developed a thermoresponsive emulsion system based on liquid crystals. The system displays a variety of topological defects and promises a wealth of applications ranging from photonics to sensing and beyond.

---

The emulsion droplets can be reshaped by fusing in a controlled way, which acts as versatile building blocks for reconfigurable emulsions, which are important for microfluidics, droplet encapsulation and cargo delivery.

The work has been published recently in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), a prestigious international journal. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422026122 .

Saikat Das, School of Physics, UoH: Seyednejad Seyed Reza, faculty of mathematics and physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; and Simon Čopar, faculty of mathematics and physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; along with Prof. Surajit Dhara constitute the research team.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America is a peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences, published since 1915, and publishes original research, scientific reviews, commentaries, and letters.