Bijels stabilized using rod-like particles

Abstract

Bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels, in short ‘bijels’, rely on a trapped layer of colloidal particles for their stability. These structures have traditionally been created using spherical colloidal particles. Here we show for the first time the use of rod-shape particles to stabilize bijels. We show that domain size decreases more rapidly with particle concentration in the case of rods compared to spheres. Large-scale analysis and detailed examination of images show that the packing fraction of rods is much higher than expected, in part, due to the role of ‘flippers’.