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    Plant Latex as a Versatile and Sustainable Emulsifier

    Year: 2022

    Journal: Langmuir, Volume 38, NOV 1, page 13217–13225

    Authors: Basavaraj, Madivala G.; Kumar, Hemant

    Organizations: IIT Madras through the Institutions of Eminence (IoE) Scheme [SB/2021/0817/CH/MHRD/008476]; Ministry of Education; Government of India

    Emulsions are a class of high-surface-energy materials typically stabilized by surfactants, polymers, particles, or a combination of these. There has been considerable effort to develop new emulsifiers by exploiting developments in synthetic chemistry; however, synthetic surface-active species may assist in the stabilization of a specific type of immiscible liquid-liquid systems. That is, one stabilizer does not provide a solution for all interface stabilization problems. Moreover, the synthesis of surface-active systems involves high production costs and complex synthesis routes and generates a substantial amount of chemical waste. In this work, we show that plant latex, an aqueous dispersion of colloidal-scale particles in which small as well as large bioactive species are also present, can be used as a versatile and sustainable source for interface stabilization. The constituents of the latex are found to reduce the oil-water interfacial tension due to the spontaneous adsorption of surface-active species present in the latex. The surface-active nature of latex is further exploited to obtain very stable single emulsions, double emulsions (DEs), and multiple emulsions (MEs). Our results conclusively show that plan latex is a potential versatile source for the stabilization of emulsions created by considering different types of immiscible liquid systems.
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