You, K., Murray, B.S., Connell, S.D. orcid.org/0000-0003-2500-5724 et al. (1 more author) (2024) Fabrication and lubrication performance of sustainable Pickering‐like water‐in‐water emulsions using plant protein microgels. Nano Select, 5 (4). 2300160. ISSN 2688-4011
Abstract
Aqueous multiphasic systems have attracted a great deal of interest recently owing to the growing demands of sustainability for the development of stable “oil-free” emulsions, often complicated by their limited stability against droplet coarsening. Although particles may provide ultrastability to water-in-water (W/W) emulsions formed in phase-separating polymer systems, the need for lubrication in such W/W emulsions presents an important challenge for their use in diverse applications. Herein, W/W Pickering emulsions were stabilized by sustainable plant protein (pea)-based microgels (PPM) using starch and xanthan gum as the biopolymers to generate the W/W phase separating droplet structures. The lubricity of these systems was compared with that of parallel systems stabilized by animal (whey) protein microgels (WPM). New results reveal that PPM are more soft and adhesive than WPM and outperform the latter in boundary lubrication performance, in striking contrast to the behavior of the non-microgelled pea or whey proteins. Furthermore, the PPM tend to stabilize a different, less spherical type of W/W droplet than the WPM that may explain the lower friction observed in PPM-stabilized systems. The novel approach of fabricating W/W emulsions stabilized by sustainable microgels opens up new solutions in designing aqueous lubricants for future nutritional and biomedical applications.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Authors. Nano Select published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | adhesion; aqrueous lubrication; atomic force microscopy; biopolymer; friction; rheology; W/W emulsion |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Food Science and Nutrition (Leeds) > FSN Colloids and Food Processing (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Molecular & Nanoscale Physics |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EU - European Union 757993 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 Dec 2023 11:05 |
Last Modified: | 16 May 2024 15:17 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/nano.202300160 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:206739 |