Nanoscale double emulsions stabilized by single-component block copolypeptides

Abstract

Water-in-oil-in-water emulsions are examples of double emulsions, in which dispersions of small water droplets within larger oil droplets are themselves dispersed in a continuous aqueous phase. Emulsions occur in many forms of processing and are used extensively by the foods, cosmetics and coatings industries. Because of their compartmentalized internal structure, double emulsions can provide advantages over simple oil-in-water emulsions for encapsulation, such as the ability to carry both polar and non-polar cargos, and improved control over release of therapeutic molecules. The preparation of double emulsions typically requires mixtures of surfactants for stability; the formation of double nanoemulsions, where both inner and outer droplets are under 100 nm, has not yet been achieved. Here we show that water-in-oil-in-water double emulsions can be prepared in a simple process and stabilized over many months using single-component, synthetic amphiphilic diblock copolypeptide surfactants. These surfactants even stabilize droplets subjected to extreme flow, leading to direct, mass production of robust double nanoemulsions that are amenable to nanostructured encapsulation applications in foods, cosmetics and drug delivery.

“Combo” nanomedicine: Co-delivery of multi-modal therapeutics for efficient, targeted, and safe cancer therapy

“…Liposomes, double emulsion surfactants, micelles, self-assembled polymers, and hydrogels as shown in Fig. 4 are some examples of micro-and nano-sized delivery systems commonly used for co-delivery of therapeutic agents [154]. Drugs may be covalently conjugated to polymers or peptides, loaded into nanoparticles via nanoprecipitation, emulsion, solvent evaporation, or soft lithography [155].…”

Antibubbles, liquid onions and bouncing droplets

“…The idea is to generate macroscopic Water in Oil in Water (WOW) droplet [15]. Since antibubbles are created from an impacting jet on air-water interfaces, WOW droplets are obtained by impacting droplet on a oil-water interface [9], also reported by Galvin et al [16].…”

Entropic, electrostatic, and interfacial regimes in concentrated disordered ionic emulsions

“…We measure the interfacial tension between the aqueous 10 mM SDS solution, into which different concentrations of NaCl have been added, and the PDMS oil using a du Nouy ring (Hanson et al 2008;Zuidema and Waters 1941). Before each measurement, we clean the du Nouy ring (CSC Scientific, platinum-iridium, circumference = 5.996 cm; R/r = 55.6, where R is the radius of the ring and r is the radius of the platinum wire) by rinsing it with deionized water and flaming it with a methanol flame.…”