Seminar über aktuelle Fragen zur Dynamik komplexer Fluide: Shape-shifting polygonal and polyhedral droplets

Cooled oil emulsion droplets in surfactant solution flatten into a remarkable host of polygonal shapes with straight edges and sharp corners. These "shape-shifting" deformations are not only a beautiful problem at the interface of chemistry, mathematics, and physics, but they also promise new approaches for synthesising small polymeric particles. However, two different driving mechanisms were proposed and remained debated for some time.

In this talk, I will use simple models to (a) show that only a mechanism based on a partial phase transition of the bulk oil is consistent with the experimental observations and (b) reveal the physical basis for the sequence of polygonal shapes and the statistics of shape outcomes.