Paper Number
IR11                         My Program 

Session
Interfacial Rheology, Surfactants, Foams and Emulsions

Title
Simulation of amphiphilicity-dependent aggregation and microstructural evolution of Janus particles at fluid interfaces

Presentation Date and Time
October 20, 2025 (Monday) 2:50

Track / Room
Track 5 / O’Keeffe + Milagro

Authors (Click on name to view author profile)

  1. Pourasgharoshtebin, Masoumeh (Texas Tech University, Department of Chemical Engineering)
  2. K C, Bhaskar (Texas Tech University, Department of Mechanical Engineering)
  3. Khare, Rajesh (Texas Tech University, Department of Chemical Engineering)
  4. Christopher, Gordon F. (Texas Tech University)

Author and Affiliation Lines (in printed abstract book)
Masoumeh Pourasgharoshtebin1, Bhaskar K C2, Rajesh Khare1 and Gordon F. Christopher2
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409; 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409

Speaker / Presenter 
Christopher, Gordon F.

Keywords
computational methods; colloids; interfacial rheology

Text of Abstract
Pickering emulsions, which are widely utilized in healthcare, pharmaceutical, and industrial applications, are dependent on the properties of the particle laden interfaces around drops. Janus colloidal particles (JPs), characterized by their distinct surface properties on opposite faces, significantly influence self-assembly behaviors of particle fluid interfaces. Recent experimental work by the Razavi’s research group [AIChE J. 2023;69:e18241], has posited that Janus particles with varying wettability on faces impact self-assembly due to altering the capillary interactions between particles to include distributions of capillary dipoles and hexapoles. Understanding these interactions is fundamental to advancing knowledge of their underlying physicochemical mechanisms. In this study, we employed computational simulations to examine the microstructural and mechanical properties of monolayers formed by particle systems with distributions of capillary hexapoles and dipoles and compared them to the experimental results of the Razavi research group. Analyzing particle local order, energy landscape, and pairwise interaction distributions, we found that simulated systems of hexapoles and dipoles in equilibrium correspond well to experimental results of Janus particles at specific surface concentrations. In addition, ongoing studies are investigating the mechanical response and structural evolution of these particle networks under externally applied compression, to find if predicted surface pressure evolution of these systems also corresponds to the experimental results of Janus particles.