Clay-Based Colloidosomes

Abstract

Poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) has been adsorbed onto the surface of Laponite clay nanoparticles from aqueous solution at pH 9 in order to produce an efficient hybrid Pickering emulsifier. This facile protocol allows formation of stable sunflower oil-in-water Pickering emulsions via homogenization at 12,000 rpm for 2 min at 20 °C. The effect of varying the extent of PEI adsorption on the Pickering emulsifier performance of the surface-modified Laponite is investigated for five oils of varying polarity using aqueous electrophoresis, thermogravimetric analysis, and laser diffraction studies. A minimum volume-average emulsion droplet diameter of around 60 μm was achieved at a Laponite concentration of 0.50% by mass when utilizing a PEI/Laponite mass ratio of 0.50. Such emulsions proved to be very stable toward droplet coalescence over time scales of months, although creaming is observed on standing within days due to the relatively large droplet size. These conditions correspond to submonolayer coverage of the Laponite particles by the PEI, which ensures that there is little or no excess PEI remaining in the aqueous continuous phase. This situation is confirmed by visual inspection of the underlying aqueous phase of the creamed emulsion when using fluorescently labeled PEI. These Pickering emulsions are readily converted into novel clay-based colloidosomes via reaction of the primary and/or secondary amine groups on the PEI chains adsorbed at the Laponite surface with either oil-soluble poly(propylene glycol) diglycidyl ether or water-soluble poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether cross-linkers. These colloidosomes were sufficiently robust to survive the removal of the internal oil phase after washing with excess alcohol, as judged by both optical and fluorescence microscopy. However, dye release studies conducted with clay-based colloidosomes suggest that these microcapsules are highly permeable and hence do not provide an effective barrier for retarding the release of small molecules.