Leibniz MMS Days 2022 - Abstract

Giefer, Patrick

An Atomistic View On Protein Adsorption to Interfaces and the Importance of Wettability on Drop Break-up in a Capillary Confinement from a Fluid-Dynamic Perspective

Emulsions are widely used in a variety of different industries and applications with increasing importance. Two main objectives need to be addressed in the emulsion formulation: The emulsion needs to be formed with a narrow and predefined size distribution and it needs to be stabilized to prevent coalescence and therefore facilitate handling of the emulsion. So far the breakup mechanism of droplets in Membranes is still unknown. Further the role of proteins on breakup mechanism due to their interfacial adsorption and induces change in wettability needs to be addressed. In this work Molecular Dynamic simulations were performed to give an insight on protein adsorption to oil/water and water/SIO2 interfaces to understand which role Proteins play in this context. Furthermore Computational Fluid Dynamics were conducted to clarify the breakup mechanism in capillary confinements under varying fluid properties as well as membrane wettability. The results show that the proteins not only adsorb to fluid/fluid but also fluid/solid interfaces and therefore change the properties of the membrane. From the fluid-dynamic perspective membrane wettability plays a major role on the droplet dispersion as well as in the emergence of fluid dynamic instabilities that eventually lead to breakup.