Enzymatically produced nanocellulose as emulsifier for Pickering emulsion

With the increasing demand for label-friendly emulsion products, chemical treatments and the addition of non-natural ingredients are inadvisable in food , cosmetic, and pharmaceutical sectors. The current research proposed a green development strategy from nanocellulose production to emulsion preparation, i.e., enzymatically prepared nanocellulose (ENC) for stabilizing O/W Pickering emulsions . Benefiting from a mild enzymatic reaction, ENC inherently had low Zeta potential and oil/water interfacial tension, facilitating the formation of stable Pickering emulsions. Biphasic fluorescence staining, emulsion polymerization , and rheology were employed to investigate the emulsification characteristics of ENC, establishing the interfacial adsorption behavior and concentration-dependent phase behavior of ENC-stabilized Pickering emulsions. Importantly, due to strong particle-particle and interface-particle interactions dominated by van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonding, ENC-stabilized Pickering emulsions exhibited excellent stability under different temperatures, pH values, NaCl concentrations, and centrifugation. This work provides a green pathway for the development of nanocellulose-based Pickering emulsions.