A novel device is applied to produce emulsions of methyl methacrylate in water with a controllable size in the range of 30–100 nm. The process is based on the reciprocating flow of the material through an abrupt contraction which generates a strong elongational flow. This results in highly efficient dispersive mixing even at moderate pressures, thus reducing viscous dissipation and improving temperature control. The original design of the device also allows easy feeding and sampling, easy adjusting of the total volume of the emulsion, and processing volatile components owing to the liquid‐ and gas‐tightness of the device. The influence of process parameters (like pressure drop and mixing time) and composition of the system (volume ratio of the dispersed and continuous phases, surfactant and hydrophobic agent weight percentages) on the droplet size and stability of the emulsions is investigated and discussed.

A novel low pressure device was used to generate nanoemulsions of methyl methacrylate. This device is based on a strong elongational flow known to be more efficient than the shear flow for dispersive mixing. The influence of process parameters (pressure drop number of cycles, number and size of holes) and composition parameters (monomer fraction, surfactant concentration, etc) on droplet size has shown that the average droplet size can be tailored in the range 30-200 nm by adjusting these parameters. The objective of the present paper is to find correlations that relate the obtained droplet size to the studied process and composition parameters. This model is based on a dimensional analysis using the Buckingham theorem in order to determine appropriate dimensionless numbers. This approach represents a first step for scaling up the device besides giving a set of parameters allowing to achieve a given droplet size. V C 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] 2015