Elizabeth publishes her new Pickering water-in-oil emulsions in Advanced Materials Interfaces

 Elizabeth Tenorio Garcia (PhD Student, Conacyt) publishes a paper titled "Pickering Water-in-Oil Emulsions Stabilized Solely by Fat Crystals" in Advanced Materials and Interfaces. This work done by Elizabeth in collaboration with Dr. Andrea Araiza-Calahorra (Postdoctoral Reserach Fellow, UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee Fund MicroLub Project) and other co-authors shows via a combination of small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering and microscopy across length scales reveal that indeed fat crystals formed using an oleogel-based technique of cocoa butter with vegetable oil offer extraordinary stability to water droplets (up to 60% (v/v)) against coalescence and phase inversion, over storage for 7 months. Such extraordinary stability was linked to the to the cocoa butter crystals of βV polymorph located at the water–oil interface and to the inter-droplet fat crystal network formation, interlocking the water droplets. The bonus was that the increment in water volume fraction actually did not soften but gave the material gel-like properties with the water droplets acting as “active fillers.” These newly designed Pickering water-in-oil emulsions stabilized solely by fat crystals with unusual rigidity offers exciting possibilities to design advanced functional materials in food, pharmaceutics, and cosmetic applications, where long-term stabilization of water droplets using biocompatibl particles is a necessity. Of course in food, this present a novel yet facile approach for utilizing fat crystals without the need for additional additives, offering potential for the development of low-calorie, clean-level, and sustainable fat-based food applications. Read the open access paper here: https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202300190