This subtheme addresses the development of different types of advanced emulsions and dispersions. This includes the synthesis of colloidal polymer particles in emulsions with well-defined polymer composition and surface stabilization components in order to study their interaction with other colloidal particles in the system, e.g., mimicking water-borne coating formulations. Also, methods to produce monodisperse colloidal particles using microfluidics are developed to study self-organization strategies over multiple length scales combining bottom-up and top-down approaches.
Furthermore, we study water-in-water (W/W) and other shared-solvent emulsions, which can be prepared by mixing two segregative polymeric and/or colloidal compounds in water. This leads to phase separation and the challenge is to stabilize the interface of such W/W emulsions, which have properties differing tremendously from classical oil/water emulsions. We aim to contribute to this challenge by increasing our fundamental understanding of these macromolecular interfaces using new experimental techniques such as X-ray reflectometry and theoretical insights.