Issue 28, 2017

Bijels formed by direct mixing

Abstract

By combining interfacial nanoparticles and molecular surfactants together with immiscible liquids of high viscosity, we develop an alternative strategy for creating bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels (bijels). These bijels are prepared from common ingredients which are widely used in industry: glycerol, silicone oil, silica nanoparticles together with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant. We tune the sample composition and develop a multi-step mixing protocol to achieve a tortuous arrangement of liquid domains. We show that the nanoparticle location changes from one of the phases to the interface during mixing. The changes in both the microscopic and macroscopic sample configuration after a waiting time of months were assessed. In order for the structure to have long-term stability we find that the densities of the two phases must be similar which we achieved by filling one of the phases with nanoparticle-stabilised droplets of the other. This work paves the way to the production of bijels using fully immiscible liquids and hence their exploitation in many application areas.

Graphical abstract: Bijels formed by direct mixing

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
04 May 2017
Accepted
26 Jun 2017
First published
03 Jul 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Soft Matter, 2017,13, 4824-4829

Bijels formed by direct mixing

D. Cai, P. S. Clegg, T. Li, K. A. Rumble and J. W. Tavacoli, Soft Matter, 2017, 13, 4824 DOI: 10.1039/C7SM00897J

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