How to control the morphology of a multiple-liquid system via direct mixing?

Arrested composites can be created via the stabilization of convoluted fluid-fluid interfaces, which applies to multiple immiscible liquid systems containing dispersed colloidal particles. Such systems can form various morphologies, including the conventional Pickering emulsions, multiple emulsions, Janus droplets and non-spherical droplets. Moreover, the jamming of interfacial particles provides a promising route to create even more elaborate arrested states. For instance, the bijels (bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels)! All these structures exhibit novel properties and can lead to numerous applications in drug delivery, food, energy conversion and functional materials. Part I of this talk will focus on the viscosity effect on the formed structures in a binary liquid system, which reveals the formation mechanism of bijels created by direct mixing, and fills an important gap between the phase behaviors in low molecular weight liquids and that in bulk polymers. When mixing three immiscible liquids, the morphology development becomes more complex. In Part II, I will introduce both the formation mechanism and the stability mechanism of Janus emulsions, which can be a combined effect of multiphase immiscibility, interfacial tensions and surface stabilization.