Nanoparticle Interactions at Liquid Interfaces

Nanoparticles at liquid interfaces organise into complex assemblies that profoundly alter interfacial properties and enable the creation of advanced functional materials. When dispersed at the boundary between two immiscible fluids, such as oil and water, nanoparticles can reduce interfacial tension, arrest coalescence and generate robust interfacial films through processes of adsorption, self-assembly and jamming. The balance of particle wettability, size, shape and surface chemistry governs interfacial packing, curvature control and mechanical rigidity. Such interfacial architectures underpin applications in emulsion stabilisation, responsive coatings, catalysis, separation membranes and soft actuators. Recent advances have elucidated mechanisms by which anisotropic or amphiphilic particles form bicontinuous networks, Janus structures and viscoelastic gels, expanding the toolkit for designing reconfigurable interfaces. Beyond fundamental colloid science, these discoveries are driving innovations in printable all-liquid devices, stimuli-responsive microcapsules, and porous nanocomposites for energy storage, water treatment and biomedical delivery. As interfacial assembly can be tuned through external stimuli—pH, temperature, magnetic or electric fields—nanoparticle films at liquid interfaces have emerged as dynamic platforms for adaptive materials with global significance in sustainable technologies and advanced manufacturing.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have demonstrated the formation of liquid Janus systems by guiding distinct nanoparticle dispersions into opposing domains within an apolar medium. These anisotropic Janus liquids serve as templates for mechanically robust aerogels with tailored magnetic and conductive networks, achieving exceptional electromagnetic-interference shielding and piezoresistive sensing. Another approach utilises interfacial jamming of nanosheets and polymer surfactants to produce viscoelastic Pickering emulgels as inks for three-dimensional nanocomposite printing. This strategy affords spatial control over nanomaterial connectivity, enabling architected composites with continuous conductive or phase-change networks. In parallel, solvent-segregation driven gels capture bicontinuous nanoparticle networks that exhibit reversible thermal tuning of pore size and gelation temperature. The universality of this method offers a scalable route to porous colloidal materials amenable to water purification, catalysis and optical modulation.

Research from all publishers

A controlled droplet-evaporation technique on liquid-repellent surfaces has been introduced to fabricate supraparticles—hierarchical agglomerates of nanoparticles and microparticles. By harnessing boundary-driven confinement, this method yields porous particles with high surface area and tailored functions for catalysis, drug delivery and sensing without extensive solvent use. Separately, surfactant-free bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels (bijels) with sub-micrometre domains have been realised solely through covalently functionalised silica nanoparticles. This innovation bypasses the need for molecular surfactants, offering superior control over domain size and charge-mediated stability. These bijels promise integration into battery separators, chemical reactors and separation membranes as nanostructured scaffolds with enhanced mass transport and mechanical integrity.

Nanoparticle Interactions at Liquid Interfaces publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in nanoparticle interactions at liquid interfaces across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Liquid–liquid interface: Boundary between two immiscible fluids where surface tension is modified by adsorbed particles.

Pickering emulsion: Emulsion stabilised by solid particles that adsorb at the interface and prevent droplet coalescence.

Bijel: Bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gel featuring two interpenetrating fluid domains stabilised by nanoparticles.

Janus particle: Nanoparticle with two faces of differing chemistry or wettability, yielding asymmetric interfacial behaviour.

Interfacial jamming: Arrest of particle motion at an interface due to high surface coverage and mechanical crowding.

Emulgel: Hybrid soft material combining emulsion droplets and gel network, often achieved by nanoparticle assembly at interfaces.

Surface functionalisation: Chemical modification of nanoparticle surfaces to tune wettability, charge and binding affinities at interfaces.

References

1. Droplet evaporation on super liquid-repellent surfaces: A controllable approach for supraparticle fabrication. Advances in Colloid and Interface Science (2024).
2. Functional Janus structured liquids and aerogels. Nature Communications (2023).
3. Stabilizing Bicontinuous Emulsions with Sub‐Micrometer Domains Solely by Nanoparticles. Advanced Science (2024).
4. Interfacial jamming reinforced Pickering emulgel for arbitrary architected nanocomposite with connected nanomaterial matrix. Nature Communications (2021).
5. Tunable thermo-reversible bicontinuous nanoparticle gel driven by the binary solvent segregation. Nature Communications (2021).