DPI2011-28356-C03-03
- Title: Mechanisms of generation of micron-sized drops and bubbles with applications to industrial processes, pharmacology and medicine
- Reference: DPI2011-28356-C03-03
- Funded by: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation)
- Duration: 01/01/2012-31/12/2014
- Principal Investigator: Carlos Martínez-Bazán
- Number of researchers: 6
- Budget: 135,520 €
- Summary: The aim of this coordinated proposal, addressed by three different research groups which belong to the Universities of Seville, Jaén and Madrid (UC3M) respectively, is: i) to deepen in our understanding of the basic physical mechanisms of generation of drops, bubbles and foams, ii) to study the multiple scattering of bubble clouds composed by monodisperse microbubbles and, iii) we will use part of the acquired basic knowledge of i) and ii) to design new devices for the generation of Ultrasound Contrast Agents (UCAs) with diagnostic purposes and microemulsions with applications in pharmaceutical industry. Some of these results will guide the building of new devices that will improve the performance of some of the production processes followed in pharmaceutical, alimentary or cosmetic industries or material science. In order to achieve all the objetives proposed, experiments, numerical simulations and theoretical approaches will be carried out by the three research groups involved. Just to illustrate the combination between basic and applied science involved in this proposal, one of our most ambitious objective is to develop an effective technique to measure the absolute pressure of a liquid by analyzing the acoustic signal scattered by a cloud of bubbles with sizes in the micrometer range. The achievement of this objective involves the following tasks: 1.- the generation of monodisperse bubbles with sizes below 10 microns, 2.- to inhibit the dissolution of the gas into the carrier fluid by adding a phospholipid or polymer shell to the bubble interface, 3.- to design a procedure for the mass production of these types of monodisperse microbubbles, 4.- to characterize the sound scattering of a monodisperse bubble cloud.
