Bicontinuous jammed emulsions (known as bijels) are Pickering emulsions where oil and water are both continuous phases. These interconnected structures, stabilized by colloidal nanoparticles at the oil–water interface, have been used in a wide range of applications. Among these, catalysis and encapsulation of solutes has showed promising potential, but the low mechanical properties of the systems limit their use. Here it is proposed that the use of a hydrophobic monomer able to polymerize in bulk and form a biphasic porous structure with polymer and water as immiscible phases. The final system is stabilized by colloidal nanoparticles made of hydroxyapatite, and the system's ability to release both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs has been demonstrated. The strategy has been proven to be highly versatile and may be tuned with a diversity of monomers and nanoparticles to satisfy specific industrial and medical needs.

Bijels (bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels) raised an increasing interest as biomaterials for controlled drug delivery due to their biphasic nature organized in mesoscopic tortuous domains. Two bijel formulations were prepared and explored as delivery systems for both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs, ethosuximide and dimethyl fumarate. The two bijel-like structures, based on polymerized ε-caprolactone/water, differ in the stabilizing nanoparticle hydroxyapatite (inorganic) and nanogel-based nanoparticles (organic). Diffusion nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been used to characterize the bijel structure and the transport behavior of the drug molecules confined within the water/organic interconnected domains. A reduced diffusion coefficient is observed for several concentrations of the drugs and both bijel formulations. Moreover, in vitro release profiles also reveal the effect of the microstructure and drug–nanoparticle interactions.

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Choline-based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are potential candidates to replace flammable organic solvent electrolytes in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The effect of the addition of a lithium salt on the structure and dynamics of the material needs to be clarified before it enters the battery. Here, the archetypical DES choline chloride:urea at 1:2 mole fraction has been added with lithium chloride at two different concentrations and the effect of the additional cation has been evaluated with respect to the non-doped system via multinuclear NMR techniques. 1H and 7Li spin-lattice relaxation times and diffusion coefficients have been measured between 298 K and 373 K and revealed a decrease in both rotational and translational mobility of the species after LiCl doping at a given temperature. Temperature dependent 35Cl linewidths reflect the viscosity increase upon LiCl addition, yet keep track of the lithium complexation. Quantitative indicators such as correlation times and activation energies give indirect insights into the intermolecular interactions of the mixtures, while lithium single-jump distance and transference number shed light into the lithium transport, being then of help in the design of future DES electrolytes.

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