Reversibly thermosecreting and convertible lubricative oil-in-water mixtures using multiple hydrogen bonding interactions
Abstract Achieving homogeneous oil and water mixing requires thorough droplet dispersions of both liquids. An additional component, such as a surfactant, particle, solvent or ion is normally required to stabilize the small liquid droplets by providing sufficiently low interfacial tensions or strong...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Communications Materials |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-025-00740-3 |
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| author | Qianhui Zhou Mingfei Li Weiyan Yu Yunjing Wang Yujie Yang Jingcheng Hao Lu Xu |
| author_facet | Qianhui Zhou Mingfei Li Weiyan Yu Yunjing Wang Yujie Yang Jingcheng Hao Lu Xu |
| author_sort | Qianhui Zhou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Achieving homogeneous oil and water mixing requires thorough droplet dispersions of both liquids. An additional component, such as a surfactant, particle, solvent or ion is normally required to stabilize the small liquid droplets by providing sufficiently low interfacial tensions or strong repulsive forces. Here we show that very stable oil-in-water mixtures can be created even at very high oil volume fractions by building multiple, high-strength hydrogen bonding interactions between water and a biocompatible and biodegradable oil trimethylolpropane trioleate, which make the oil molecules at the contact interface behave as pseudo-surfactants with ultrahigh interfacial activity. The resultant oil microdroplets can be reversibly thermosecreted from the continuous aqueous phase and lead to controllable formation/dissociation and switchable lubrication of the binary liquid mixture owing to the inherent thermal responsiveness of the intermolecular hydrogen bonding. Interestingly, although water is uncovered to possess a relatively poor lubricity, the liquid mixture yields an optimized lubrication that is even exceedingly comparable to pure oil at a water volume fraction as high as 80%. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1f3cd7d527854e8797ad96a7568f5669 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2662-4443 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Materials |
| spelling | doaj-art-1f3cd7d527854e8797ad96a7568f56692025-01-26T12:43:37ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Materials2662-44432025-01-01611910.1038/s43246-025-00740-3Reversibly thermosecreting and convertible lubricative oil-in-water mixtures using multiple hydrogen bonding interactionsQianhui Zhou0Mingfei Li1Weiyan Yu2Yunjing Wang3Yujie Yang4Jingcheng Hao5Lu Xu6Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at YantaiShandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at YantaiShandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at YantaiShandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at YantaiShandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at YantaiShandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at YantaiShandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at YantaiAbstract Achieving homogeneous oil and water mixing requires thorough droplet dispersions of both liquids. An additional component, such as a surfactant, particle, solvent or ion is normally required to stabilize the small liquid droplets by providing sufficiently low interfacial tensions or strong repulsive forces. Here we show that very stable oil-in-water mixtures can be created even at very high oil volume fractions by building multiple, high-strength hydrogen bonding interactions between water and a biocompatible and biodegradable oil trimethylolpropane trioleate, which make the oil molecules at the contact interface behave as pseudo-surfactants with ultrahigh interfacial activity. The resultant oil microdroplets can be reversibly thermosecreted from the continuous aqueous phase and lead to controllable formation/dissociation and switchable lubrication of the binary liquid mixture owing to the inherent thermal responsiveness of the intermolecular hydrogen bonding. Interestingly, although water is uncovered to possess a relatively poor lubricity, the liquid mixture yields an optimized lubrication that is even exceedingly comparable to pure oil at a water volume fraction as high as 80%.https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-025-00740-3 |
| spellingShingle | Qianhui Zhou Mingfei Li Weiyan Yu Yunjing Wang Yujie Yang Jingcheng Hao Lu Xu Reversibly thermosecreting and convertible lubricative oil-in-water mixtures using multiple hydrogen bonding interactions Communications Materials |
| title | Reversibly thermosecreting and convertible lubricative oil-in-water mixtures using multiple hydrogen bonding interactions |
| title_full | Reversibly thermosecreting and convertible lubricative oil-in-water mixtures using multiple hydrogen bonding interactions |
| title_fullStr | Reversibly thermosecreting and convertible lubricative oil-in-water mixtures using multiple hydrogen bonding interactions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reversibly thermosecreting and convertible lubricative oil-in-water mixtures using multiple hydrogen bonding interactions |
| title_short | Reversibly thermosecreting and convertible lubricative oil-in-water mixtures using multiple hydrogen bonding interactions |
| title_sort | reversibly thermosecreting and convertible lubricative oil in water mixtures using multiple hydrogen bonding interactions |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-025-00740-3 |
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