One-step fabrication of multifunctional high internal phase pickering emulsion gels solely stabilized by a softer globular protein nanoparticle: S-Ovalbumin.

A softer natural Pickering nanostabilizer, S-ovalbumin (S-OVA) was reported in this work, based on our previous researches about soft globular protein nanoparticles. Compared with native OVA, S-OVA has higher surface hydrophobicity, greater conformational flexibility and thinner tightly-bond water layer, which make it be unfolded more highly at the oil-water interface. However, S-OVA also possesses higher zeta-potential and thicker closely-surrounding water layer, offering it stronger electrostatic repulsion and steric hindrance between molecules and increased intramolecular cohesion. The improvements guarantee S-OVA undisintegrated particle structure and independent state on the interface and high refolding off the interface. The more flexible interior and firmer exterior together endow a higher softness to S-OVA. The HIPPE gels solely stabilized by S-OVA were fabricated using one-step shearing. These HIPPE gels own steady network structure mainly supported by bridging flocculation, strong self-supporting ability and moldability. The high storage stability and ability to inhibiting lipid oxidization provide the HIPPE gels an enormous potential in encapsulating and protecting volatile, easily-oxidized or dangerous organic liquids, during the storage and transportation. The attractive temperature responsiveness offers a high convenience to re-obtaining the organic liquids. And a re-encapsulation can be easily achieved via a re-shearing. The heat-enhanced gel intensity and moldability mean the HIPPE gels can be applied to produce dualistic gels or porous scaffolds with latent applications. These findings are helpful to explore more new Pickering stabilizers from the nature and extend the applications of HIPPEs in highly-demanded and high-tech industries.