Issue 17, 2011
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Soft microgels as Pickering emulsion stabilisers: role of particle deformability†

Mathieu Destribats,a   Véronique Lapeyre,b   Mélanie Wolfs,b   Elisabeth Sellier,c   Fernando Leal-Calderon,d   Valérie Ravaine*b  and  Véronique Schmitt*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, 115 Avenue Schweitzer, Pessac, France
E-mail: schmitt@crpp-bordeaux.cnrs.fr
Fax: +33 556845600
Tel: +33 556845660

b Institut des Sciences Moléculaires, Université Bordeaux 1, CNRS, ENSCBP16 Avenue Pey Berland, Pessac, France
E-mail: vravaine@enscbp.fr
Fax: +33 540002717
Tel: +33 540002730

c CREMEM, Université Bordeaux 1, Bât. B8 Avenue des Facultés, Talence, France

d Laboratoire de Chimie et Biologie des Membranes et des Nano-objets, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, Allée Geoffroy St Hilaire, Bât B14, Pessac, France
E-mail: fleal@enscbp.fr
Tel: +33 5 40 00 68 38

Abstract

We synthesised soft uncharged microgels made of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) of variable cross-linking degrees and we probed their efficiency as stabilisers to fabricate oil-in-water emulsions. Interestingly, such particles undergo a swollen-to-collapsed transition above a critical temperature. By combining several microscopy methods and by exploiting the limited coalescence process, we were able to determine both the particle concentration and structure at the interface, as a function of the cross-linking density. Being deformable, the initially spherical microgels adopt a “fried egg-like” structure when adsorbed at the oil/water interface. As expected, the interfacial deformation is increasingly pronounced as the cross-linking degree decreases. The most deformable microgels tend to form 2D connected networks characterised by significant overlapping of the peripheral parts. When the deformability is lost, by increasing the cross-linking density or the temperature, the stabilisation efficiency is considerably reduced. Our results strongly suggest that emulsion stability is mainly determined by the microgels' deformability and we discuss the origin of that empirical link in terms of lateral overlapping and interfacial elasticity.

Graphical abstract: Soft microgels as Pickering emulsion stabilisers: role of particle deformability

About
Cited by
Related
Download options Please wait...

Supplementary files

Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C1SM05240C
Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Feb 2011
Accepted
31 May 2011
First published
11 Jul 2011

Soft Matter, 2011,7, 7689-7698

Permissions

Request permissions

Soft microgels as Pickering emulsion stabilisers: role of particle deformability

M. Destribats, V. Lapeyre, M. Wolfs, E. Sellier, F. Leal-Calderon, V. Ravaine and V. Schmitt, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 7689 DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05240C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements