UC Davis

Amphiphilic protein microfibrils have been generated for the first time by ice-templated self-assembly of aqueous globular protein colloids and subsequent selective disassembly in polar solvents like MeOH, EtOH, acetone, and dimethylformamide. Semicrystalline microfibrils, ca. 1.2 μm wide and 45-70 μm long, produced from soy proteins are excellent amphiphiles, which are capable of stabilizing both high-internal-phase o/w and w₁/o/w₂ double emulsions as well as retaining amphiphilicity even with surface-bound lipophiles and electrophiles. This ice-templated self-assembling and polar solvent disassembling approach is applicable to other legume proteins, such as pea proteins, and is scalable to process globular proteins into amphiphilic microfibrils for Pickering emulsions in many potential applications including food, pharmaceuticals and skin care.