Widely adaptable oil-in-water gel emulsions stabilized by an amphiphilic hydrogelator derived from dehydroabietic acid

Yan, Tingting; Song, Binglei; Pei, Xiaomei; Cui, Zhenggang; Binks, Bernard P.; Yang, Hengquan

Abstract

A surfactant, R-6-AO, derived from dehydroabietic acid has been synthesized. It behaves as a highly efficient low-molecular-weight hydrogelator with an extremely low critical gelation concentration (CGC) of 0.18 wt % (4 mm). R-6-AO not only stabilizes oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions at concentrations above its critical micelle concentration (cmc) of 0.6 mm, but also forms gel emulsions at concentrations beyond the CGC with the oil volume fraction freely adjustable between 2 % and 95 %. Cryo-TEM images reveal that R-6-AO molecules self-assemble into left-handed helical fibers with cross-sectional diameters of about 10 nm in pure water, which can be turned to very stable hydrogels at concentrations above the CGC. The gel emulsions stabilized by R-6-AO can be prepared with different oils (n-dodecane, n-decane, n-octane, soybean oil, olive oil, tricaprylin) owing to the tricyclic diterpene hydrophobic structure in their molecules that enables them to adopt a unique arrangement in the fibers.

Citation

Yan, T., Song, B., Pei, X., Cui, Z., Binks, B. P., & Yang, H. (2020). Widely adaptable oil-in-water gel emulsions stabilized by an amphiphilic hydrogelator derived from dehydroabietic acid. Angewandte Chemie, 59(2), 637-641. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201907774

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 26, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2019
• Publication Date: Jan 7, 2020
• Deposit Date: Nov 4, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 4, 2019
• Journal: Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
• Print ISSN: 1433-7851
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 59
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 637-641
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201907774
• Keywords: Gel emulsions; Low molecular weight hydrogelator; Self-assemble fibers; Dehydroabietic acid; Amine oxide
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3082925
• Contract Date: Nov 4, 2019