Water-in-water emulsions stabilized by self-assembled chitosan colloidal particles

Recent advances on water-in-water emulsions in segregative systems of two water-soluble polymers

“…The particles can be very varied, and recent examples include cellulose microfibrils or nanocrystals in maltodextrin-in-dextran emulsions [19,20], β-lactoglobulin in dextran and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose aqueous mixtures [21], and platelet-like starch nanocrystals in PEG-in-dextran (P/D) emulsions [22], among other examples [23][24][25]. Stabilization of W/W requires an accurate control of particle adsorption at the interface (Figure 1).…”

Interfacial stabilization of aqueous two-phase systems: a review

“…Colloidal particles stabilize PEG–dextran emulsions as they are readily trapped at the interface and lower the interfacial energy, forming Pickering emulsions. 25,101,103,109,121,125–131 For instance, microgel particles, comprising a crosslinked polymer network, can serve as interfacial stabilizers while imparting stimuli responsiveness to the stabilization. 121,126,129 In these systems, droplets have been shown to remain stable for at least one week.…”

“…2E). 103 In this setting, increasing the PEG and dextran concentration increased the viscosity of the phase-separating polymer solutions, ultimately allowing for tuning of the stability and size of a droplet. Chitosan has also been used in conjunction with cellulose nanocrystals to form a solid, membranous interfacial layer via electrostatic complexation, stabilizing the interface.…”

“…Colloidal particles stabilize PEG-dextran emulsions as they are readily trapped at the interface and lower the interfacial energy, forming Pickering emulsions. 25,101,103,109,121,[125][126][127][128][129][130][131] For instance, microgel…”

“…However, it is more often that researchers consider and modify the volumes of polymer or salt solutions or the size of stabilizing particles instead, which can ultimately affect the size of the droplets. 80,103,104 For example, it has been found that native proteins are generally too small for stabilization purposes (radius of B2 nm). 101 It has also been reported that droplets stabilized by triblock polymers, discussed in detail in the following section, can experience changes in stability based on droplet size.…”