Water-in-Water Emulsions Stabilized by Silica Janus Nanosheets

Water-in-water (w/w) emulsions have been recognized for their broad applications in foods, cosmetics, and biomedical engineering. In this work, silica Janus nanosheets (JNs) with polyacrylic acid (PAA) chains grafted on one surface via crushing functional silica foams, and used silica JNs as Pickering stabilizer to produce stable water-in-water (w/w) emulsions from the aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) containing methacrylic acid (MAA) and NaCl are prepared. The interfacial area of w/w emulsions increases linearly with the concentration of silica JNs, and the interfacial coverage of nanosheets is calculated to be about 98%. After polymerizing w/w emulsions prepared from MAA/NaCl ATPS, it is found that silica JNs are entrapped at the interface of w/w emulsions with the smooth PAA-grafted surface located toward MAA-rich phase due to their specific interaction. These results show that functional silica JNs can be used as a promising amphiphilic Pickering stabilizer to produce well-defined w/w emulsions for numerous application fields.