title: A novel coarsening mechanism of droplets in immiscible fluid mixtures.
abstract: In our daily lives, after shaking a salad dressing, we see the coarsening of oil droplets suspended in vinegar. Such a demixing process is observed everywhere in nature and also of technological importance. For a case of high droplet density, domain coarsening proceeds with inter-droplet collisions and the resulting coalescence. This phenomenon has been explained primarily by the so-called Brownian-coagulation mechanism: stochastic thermal forces exerted by molecules induce random motion of individual droplets, causing accidental collisions and subsequent interface-tension-driven coalescence. Contrary to this, here we demonstrate that the droplet motion is not random, but hydrodynamically driven by the composition Marangoni force due to an interfacial tension gradient produced in each droplet as a consequence of composition correlation among droplets. This alters our physical understanding of droplet coarsening in immiscible liquid mixtures on a fundamental level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Fundamental Engineering, Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryotaro
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.affiliation: Department of Fundamental Engineering, Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004655:Emulsions; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D009038:Motion
chemical_list: D004655:Emulsions