Triggered In situ Disruption and Inversion of Nanoparticle-Stabilized Droplets

摘要

Described in the early 1900s, particle-stabilized droplets, or "Pickering" emulsions, have established renewed interest due to the rapid recent developments in nanoparticle synthesis and surface functionalization. Particle stabilization of fluid-fluid interfaces results from a reduction in interfacial energy that scales with particle size, and depends on particle wettability.For microparticles, the free-energy gain associated with interfacial segregation of particles is much larger than thermal energy, while for nanoparticles such stabilization is less profound, especially for particles under 10 nm diameter. Nonetheless, several examples of stable emulsion droplets formed by the presence of nanoparticles in immiscible fluids have been reported.