TY - JOUR
T1 - Stimuli‐Responsive Polymers for Engineered Emulsions
AU - Rajbanshi, Abhishek
AU - Hilton, Eleanor
AU - Dreiss, Cécile A.
AU - Murnane, Darragh
AU - Cook, Michael t.
N1 - Funding Information:
The EPSRC are thanked for funding (EP/T00813X/1). The Leverhulme Trust is also acknowledged for provision of funding (RPG‐2023‐124).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors. Macromolecular Rapid Communications published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2024/5
Y1 - 2024/5
N2 - Emulsions are complex. Dispersing two immiscible phases, thus expanding an interface, requires effort to achieve and the resultant dispersion is thermodynamically unstable, driving the system toward coalescence. Furthermore, physical instabilities, including creaming, arise due to presence of dispersed droplets of different densities to a continuous phase. Emulsions allow the formulation of oils, can act as vehicles to solubilize both hydrophilic and lipophilic molecules, and can be tailored to desirable rheological profiles, including “gel-like” behavior and shear thinning. The usefulness of emulsions can be further expanded by imparting stimuli-responsive or “smart” behaviors by inclusion of a stimuli-responsive emulsifier, polymer or surfactant. This enables manipulation like gelation, breaking, or aggregation, by external triggers such as pH, temperature, or salt concentration changes. This platform generates functional materials for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, oil recovery, and colloid engineering, combining both smart behaviors and intrinsic benefit of emulsions. However, with increased functionality comes greater complexity. This review focuses on the use of stimuli-responsive polymers for the generation of smart emulsions, motivated by the great adaptability of polymers for this application and their efficacy as steric stabilizers. Stimuli-responsive emulsions are described according to the trigger used to provide the reader with an overview of progress in this field.
AB - Emulsions are complex. Dispersing two immiscible phases, thus expanding an interface, requires effort to achieve and the resultant dispersion is thermodynamically unstable, driving the system toward coalescence. Furthermore, physical instabilities, including creaming, arise due to presence of dispersed droplets of different densities to a continuous phase. Emulsions allow the formulation of oils, can act as vehicles to solubilize both hydrophilic and lipophilic molecules, and can be tailored to desirable rheological profiles, including “gel-like” behavior and shear thinning. The usefulness of emulsions can be further expanded by imparting stimuli-responsive or “smart” behaviors by inclusion of a stimuli-responsive emulsifier, polymer or surfactant. This enables manipulation like gelation, breaking, or aggregation, by external triggers such as pH, temperature, or salt concentration changes. This platform generates functional materials for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, oil recovery, and colloid engineering, combining both smart behaviors and intrinsic benefit of emulsions. However, with increased functionality comes greater complexity. This review focuses on the use of stimuli-responsive polymers for the generation of smart emulsions, motivated by the great adaptability of polymers for this application and their efficacy as steric stabilizers. Stimuli-responsive emulsions are described according to the trigger used to provide the reader with an overview of progress in this field.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85186566038&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/marc.202300723
DO - 10.1002/marc.202300723
M3 - Review article
SN - 1022-1336
VL - 45
JO - MACROMOLECULAR RAPID COMMUNICATIONS
JF - MACROMOLECULAR RAPID COMMUNICATIONS
IS - 10
M1 - 2300723
ER -