Encapsulation of emulsion droplets and nanoparticles in nanofibers as sustainable approach for their transport and storage.

HYPOTHESIS: Emulsions are metastable and can be destabilized by coalescence and Ostwald ripening, which lead to phase separation. Immobilizing emulsion droplets in a solid material shall improve their stability during storage. EXPERIMENTS: Miniemulsions and dispersions of nanocapsules are electrospun to immobilize colloids in polymer nanofibers. The nanofibers are dissolved after various period of time to re-disperse nanodroplets and nanocapsules. FINDINGS: The size of nanodroplets and nanocapsules are close to the size of the original colloids before electrospinning, meaning that the emulsion droplets are efficiently stored overtime in nanofibers. Entrapping droplets in nanofibers by electrospinning allows a reduction of weight and volume of the emulsion of up to 82%. This method is therefore beneficial for improving shelf-life of emulsions, decreasing storage volume, and decreasing energy consumption for transportation of emulsions.