AIChE Journal, Vol.64, No.2, 697-707, 2018
Two-step continuous production of monodisperse colloidal ellipsoids at rates of one gram per day
We report a two-step process for the continuous production of monodisperse polystyrene colloidal ellipsoids of aspect ratios up to 6.8 at rates that exceed 1.0 g per day, an improvement on previously reported synthetic batch processing rates of nearly a factor of 20. This scale up is accomplished by continuous evaporative processing of a polymer solution into an elastomeric film embedded with colloidal spheres. Subsequently, the film is continuously elongated at a temperature that stretches the embedded spheres into ellipsoids. The method is used to deform initially 1.0 m diameter spheres into ellipsoids of aspect ratio 1.27 +/- 0.15, 3.31 +/- 0.44, 3.91 +/- 0.72, 4.14 +/- 0.47, and 6.77 +/- 1.01. The particle production rate reported here opens new possibilities for applications of monodisperse ellipsoids, such as self-assembly and optical characterization of complex crystalline unit cells, as well as rheological characterization of dilute gels and dense suspensions. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 697-707, 2018