Interfacial decoration of desalted duck egg white nanogels as stabilizer for Pickering emulsion

Pickering emulsions, stabilized by food-grade protein colloidal particles, have demonstrated potential in food, cosmetics, and medical applications, while their environmental instability remains serious challenges. Herein, in this study, we have prepared a simple but effective interfacial decoration method based on the noncovalent interaction between desalted duck egg white nanogels (DEWN) and natural polyphenol for enhancing the interfacial and environmental stability of Pickering emulsions. As demonstrated, the introduction of tannic acid (TA) tuned near neutral wettability (θo/w∼90°) of the DEWN-TA (named DEWN-Tn) colloidal particles and significantly lowered the interfacial tension. Subsequently, the emulsions with distinct TA concentrations were further investigated. The results presented a decrement in the droplet sizes by adding appropriate concentrations of TA and long-term storage stability. The rheological behavior explored that the addition of TA did increase in both G′ and G″ compared with a solely DEWN-based system. Furthermore, it was worth noting that the decoration of TA under optimized conditions could also increase heat and pH stability and effectively inhibit “salting-out” effects of the Pickering emulsions system. Our study implies a possibility of fabricating interfacial architecture on the oil-water interface, which possesses great potential to be used as excellent food-grade emulsifiers.