Pickering Emulsions Stabilized by Nanoparticle Surfactants

Amphiphilic gold nanoparticles are demonstrated to effectively stabilize emulsions of hexadecane in water. Nanoparticle surfactants are synthesized using a simple and scalable one-pot method that involves the sequential functionalization of particle surfaces with thiol-terminated polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains and short alkane-thiol molecules. The resulting nanoparticles are shown to be highly effective emulsifying agents due to their strong adsorption at oil–water and air–water interfaces. The original nonfunctionalized gold nanoparticles are unable to effectively stabilize oil–water emulsions due to their small size and low adsorption energy. Small-angle X-ray scattering and electron microscopy are used to demonstrate the formation of nanoparticle-stabilized colloidosomes that are stable against coalescence and show significant shifts in plasmon resonance enhancing the near-infrared optical absorption.