Designer emulsions

using microfluidics An emulsion is a mixture of two immiscible liquids, where one liquid is dispersed in the form of small drops in another liquid that forms a continuous phase1–4. Common types of emulsions include oil-in-water (o/w), such as milk, and water in oil (w/o), like butter. They are extremely important for a variety of applications such as macromolecular delivery5–8, oil recovery9,10, food processing11,12, and hazardous material handling13. The presence of a native or added surfactant is necessary for the long-term stability of emulsions: the surfactant molecules migrate to the liquid-liquid interface and inhibit droplet coalescence1,2. Most conventional methods for making emulsions involve drop breakup using shear or impact stresses generated by manual or mechanical agitation. However, such stresses are not uniform across the system, nor are they finely controlled. Emulsions formed in thes