Miniemulsion
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A miniemulsion is a special case of emulsion. A miniemulsion is obtained by shearing a mixture comprising two immscible liquid phases, one surfactant and one osmotic pressure agent.
The shearing proceeds usually via ultrasonication of the mixture or with a high-pressure homogenizer, which are high-shearing processes. In an ideal miniemulsion system, coalescence and Ostwald ripening are suppressed thanks to the presence of the surfactant and the osmotic pressure agent, respectively.
Stable droplets are then obtained, which have typically a size between 50 and 500 nm. The miniemulsion process is therefore particularly adapted for the generation of nanomaterials.
