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DOE OSTI · 1839022

Molecular Brush Surfactants: Versatile Emulsifiers for Stabilizing and Structuring Liquids

Wang, Beibei·Liu, Tan·Chen, Hao·Yin, Bangqi·Zhang, Zhao·Russell, Thomas P.·Shi, Shaowei
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Abstract

Using amphiphilic molecular brushes to stabilize emulsions usually requires the synthesis of specific side chains, which can be a time-consuming and difficult challenge to meet. By taking advantage of the electrostatic interactions between water-soluble molecular brushes and oil-soluble oligomeric ligands, here the in situ formation, assembly and jamming of molecular brush surfactants (MBSs) at the oil-water interface is described. With MBSs, stable emulsions including o/w, w/o and o/w/o can be easily prepared by varying the molar ratios of the molecular brushes to the ligands. Moreover, when jammed, the binding energy of MBSs at the interface is sufficiently strong to allow the stabilization of liquids in nonequilibrium shapes, i.e., structuring liquids, producing an elastic film at the interface with exceptional mechanical properties. These structured liquids have numerous potential applications, including chemical biphasic reactions, liquid electronics, and all-liquid biomimetic system.

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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRYjammingliquid-liquid interfacesmolecular brushstructured liquidssurfactants

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Wang, Beibei, Liu, Tan, Chen, Hao, Yin, Bangqi, Zhang, Zhao, Russell, Thomas P., Shi, Shaowei. 2021-07-28. Molecular Brush Surfactants: Versatile Emulsifiers for Stabilizing and Structuring Liquids. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202104653

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