Nowadays, ultrasonic emulsification (USE) assisted by cavitation is an effective method to produce emulsion droplets. USE possesses many advantages, such as high energy efficiency, small droplet size, easy operation and is commonly employed in food and pharmaceutical industries. However, the role of bubbles in the USE process still remains unclear.

We studied the effect of bubble dynamics on emulsion generation in a USE process. A number of new mechanisms of USE of gas bubbles in oil-water emulsions have been proposed and analysed. These results add another stepping stone towards optimization strategies of USE process in industry.