Surfactant-Free Emulsions with Erasable Triggered Phase Inversions

Yiwen Chen; Zhen Wang; Dingguan Wang; Ning Ma; Cancan Li; Yapei Wang

doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b03189

Surfactant-Free Emulsions with Erasable Triggered Phase Inversions

Langmuir. 2016 Oct 25;32(42):11039-11042. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b03189. Epub 2016 Oct 10.

Authors

Yiwen Chen¹, Zhen Wang², Dingguan Wang², Ning Ma^{1

3}, Cancan Li¹, Yapei Wang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing , Beijing 100083, China.
² Department of Chemistry, Renmin University of China , Beijing 100872, China.
³ College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University , Harbin 150001, China.

PMID: 27682193
DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b03189

Abstract

Complex emulsions including double emulsions and high-internal-phase emulsions (HIPEs) are wonderful templates for producing porous polymeric materials. Yet, surfactants and multiple emulsifications are generally needed. In this work, surfactant-free complex emulsions are successfully prepared using a CO₂-responsive block copolymer through one-step emulsification. Phase inversion from HIPEs to double emulsions happens in one system upon the change in polymer amphiphilicity as a result of CO₂ triggering. The one-step emulsification method offers great convenience for converting the block copolymer into porous 3D scaffolds and particles. Moreover, CO₂ triggering is erasable so that the polymer can be repeatedly used for controllable complex emulsions as well as porous materials.