This study introduces liquid crystal (LC) Janus droplets. We describe a process for the preparation of these droplets, which consist of nematic LC and polymer compartments. The process employs solvent-induced phase separation in emulsion droplets generated by microfluidics. The droplet morphology was systematically investigated and demonstrated to be sensitive to the surfactant concentration in...

This report is concerned with theoretical demonstration of the spontaneous emulsification which has been observed in a soft contact of nitrobenzene with water without surfactant [K. Aoki, M. Li, J. Chen, T. Nishiumi, Electrochem. Commun. 11 (2009) 239]. The demonstration is based on the model of spherical oil droplets with any size in equilibrium. The droplets are composed of the smallest dropl...

BACKGROUND Although insecticidal aerosols have been widely accepted for household use, the discharged amount should be maintained at minimum levels because they contain volatile organic compounds. Hence, it would be valuable to develop a technique whereby insecticide droplets adhere efficiently to an insect's body. The present study was undertaken in order to clarify how differences in the mode...

Insects often release noxious substances for their defence. Larvae of Zygaena filipendulae (Lepidoptera) secrete viscous and cyanogenic glucoside-containing droplets, whose effectiveness was associated with their physical and chemical properties. The droplets glued mandibles and legs of potential predators together and immobilised them. Droplets were characterised by a matrix of an aqueous solu...

Transport model of droplets injected axially or transversely into a plasma jet is presented. The droplets contain a ceramic precursor that precipitates in the vaporizing droplets. Droplet temperature and solute concentration distributions were predicted to estimate precipitation zones based on a homogeneous nucleation hypothesis. Effects of droplet size, injection velocity and injection angle w...

In this work needle like hydroxy apatite were synthesized in a reverse microemulsion droplets of water in cyclohexane, separated by a cationic surfactant and co-surfactant, in the presence of Na-polyacrylate (PAA) as an anionic polyelectrolyte. Characterization of the as formed HAp nanoparticles at the room temperature were carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared s...

Liquids condensing on solids can form a pattern known as ‘‘breath figures.’’ Here we report similar patterns for liquid boron oxide droplets formed by high temperature oxidation reaction of boron nitride. Boron oxide does not wet boron nitride, so the liquid B2O3 oxide forms small droplets. As oxidation proceeds at 12001C, the oxide created by reaction on the surface migrates to existing drople...

We report the use of flow cytometry to identify the internal ordering (director configurations) of micrometer-sized droplets of thermotropic liquid crystals (LCs) dispersed in aqueous solutions of adsorbates (surfactants and phospholipids). We reveal that changes in the configurations of the LC droplets induced by the adsorbates generate distinct changes in light scattering plots (side versus f...

Changes in the number of lipid droplets during meiotic maturation, fert i l ization and early development were histochemically examined in cultured porcine oocytes and embryos. The oocytes and embryos possessed Sudanophilic lipids composed of small (<2.5 μm), medium (2.5–4.9 μm) and large (≥5.0 μm) droplets. In oocytes soon after collection, the numbers of Sudanophilic lipid droplets with small...

BACKGROUND The Influenza A H1N1 virus can be transmitted via direct, indirect, and airborne route to non-infected subjects when an infected patient coughs, which expels a number of different sized droplets to the surrounding environment as an aerosol. The objective of the current study was to characterize the human cough aerosol pattern with the aim of developing a standard human cough bioaeros...