title: Amphiphilic nanosheet self-assembly at the water/oil interface: computer simulations.
abstract: In this paper, dissipative particle dynamics simulations are performed to study the interfacial and emulsion stabilizing properties of various systems of amphiphilic nanosheets (ANs) self-assembled at the oil/water (O/W) interface. The ANs have a dimensional symmetry structure that encompasses a triangular-plate at the center and two soft comb-like shells constructed with hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers. As the simulation results show, the AN molecules are highly oriented in interfacial films with their triangular nanosheets parallel to the O/W interface, while their hydrophobic and hydrophilic segments attempt to immerse into the oil phase and aqueous phase, respectively. These results reveal that the rotation of ANs at oil/water interfaces is greatly restricted, meanwhile, their nanosheet (or planar) configuration facilitates their favorable orientation thereby, thus making the emulsion more stable. At higher concentrations, a wrapped-like or micelle morphology is observed. The O/W emulsions stabilized by ANs were also simulated, and it is interesting to find AN 'patches' at the O/W interface which resembles the leather patches on a football. By introducing the "amphiphilic nanosheet balance" concept, the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) values of ANs were calculated. Due to their properties of two-dimensional symmetry, the HLB values of ANs tend to approximately 1 which reveals a stronger stability for emulsions.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University of Arts and Science, Dazhou, Sichuan 635000, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Wenjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shuangliang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Dazhou Vocational and Technical College, Dazhou, Sichuan 635000, P. R. China. xianyus008@163.com.
authors.forename: Xianyu
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5572-9152
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shenwen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University of Arts and Science, Dazhou, Sichuan 635000, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Fen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Dazhou Vocational and Technical College, Dazhou, Sichuan 635000, P. R. China. xianyus008@163.com.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Dazhou Vocational and Technical College, Dazhou, Sichuan 635000, P. R. China. xianyus008@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhaoyang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Luo