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Science 22 April 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5721, pp. 537 - 541
DOI: 10.1126/science.1109164
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Reports

Monodisperse Double Emulsions Generated from a Microcapillary Device

A. S. Utada,1 E. Lorenceau,1 D. R. Link,1,2 P. D. Kaplan,3 H. A. Stone,1 D. A. Weitz1,2

Double emulsions are highly structured fluids consisting of emulsion drops that contain smaller droplets inside. Although double emulsions are potentially of commercial value, traditional fabrication by means of two emulsification steps leads to very ill-controlled structuring. Using a microcapillary device, we fabricated double emulsions that contained a single internal droplet in a core-shell geometry. We show that the droplet size can be quantitatively predicted from the flow profiles of the fluids. The double emulsions were used to generate encapsulation structures by manipulating the properties of the fluid that makes up the shell. The high degree of control afforded by this method and the completely separate fluid streams make this a flexible and promising technique.

1 Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
3 Unilever Skin Global Innovation Center, 40 Merritt Boulevard, Trumbull, CT 06611, USA.

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