Production of oil/water type uniformly sized droplets using a convergent AC electric field

The authors proposed a new method to produce uniformly sized insulating liquid droplets (such as kerosene or plastic monomer) in immiscible liquid media (distilled water) by means of an applied convergent electric field generated using AC or pulsed voltage. The disintegration mechanism of the liquid column was observed precisely using video images and still photographs. Kerosene droplets with an essentially uniform diameter ranging from 100 to 250 /spl mu/m were produced synchronously with the applied AC frequency using a nozzle diameter of 100 /spl mu/m. When the flow rate of the co-flowing liquid surrounding the oil-phase liquid jet was increased, the synchronous frequency became higher and the size of the resulting droplets was decreased due to the elongation of the liquid jet. The disintegration mechanism is most likely the forced oscillation of the liquid jet stimulated by each cycle change of the applied voltage. The droplet size can be widely controlled by varying the AC frequency, nozzle diameter, liquid flow rate and velocity ratio between the oil-phase and co-flowing water.