Oil-in-Water-in-Oil Multinanoemulsions for Templating Complex Nanoparticles

Complex nanoemulsions involving nanodroplets with a defined inner structure have great potential for encapsulation and templating applications. We report a method to form novel complex oil-in-water-in-oil nanoemulsions using a combination of high-energy processing with mixed nonionic surfactants that simultaneously achieve ultralow interfacial tension and frustrated curvature of the water–oil interface. The method produces multinanoemulsions possessing morphologies resembling water-swollen reverse vesicles with core–shell and multicore–shell morphologies of water in cyclohexane. A combination of macroscopic and microscopic characterization conclusively verifies and quantifies the complex morphologies, which vary systematically and reproducibly with water content for water volume fractions between 0.01 and 0.10. The complex morphologies are stable tens of hours, providing a route for their use as liquid templates for internally structured nanoparticles. As a demonstration, we test the complex nanoemulsions’ ability to template complex polymer nanogels.