Inorganic Particle-Based Oleogels

Abstract

Fumed silica has a complex microstructure comprising of micron-sized agglomerates of submicron aggregates of nanosized primary particles. Due to this complex microstructure and interesting surface chemistry, fumed silica is capable of forming oleogels through the formation of a continuous 3D network stabilized by hydrogen bonding among particles. These oleogels can be further combined with weak water gels to create a relatively unexplored class of colloids called bigels. The microstructure and rheological properties of fumed silica-based oleogels and bigels are described in details in this chapter.