Nanoparticles actively fragment armored droplets

Abstract: Understanding the complexity of fragmentation processes is essential for regulating intercellular communication in mechanistic biology and developing novel bottom-up approaches in a large range of multiphase flow processes. In this context, self-fragmentation proceeds without any external mechanical energy input allowing one to create efficiently micro- and nanodroplets. Here we examine self-fragmentation in emulsion nanodroplets stabilized by solid particles with different surface features. Mesoscopic modelling and accelerated dynamics simulations allow us to overcome the limitations of atomistic simulations and offer detailed insight into the interplay between the evolution of the droplet shape and the particle finite-sized effects at the interface. We show that finite-sized nanoparticles play an active role in the necking breakup, behaving like nano-scale razors, and affect strongly the thermodynamic properties of the system. The role played by the particles during self-fragmentation might be of relevance to multifunctional biomaterial design and tuning of signaling pathways in mechanistic biology.