Jordi Esquena, Scientific Coordinator of Unit 12 of NANBIOSIS, has recently published an interesting review in the journal Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science, about W/W emulsions. Dr. Esquena describes the general background of research in the field and focuses on recent scientific advances and applications.
Water-in-water (W/W) emulsions are colloidal dispersions of an aqueous solution into another aqueous phase. Such dispersions can be formed in mixtures of at least two hydrophilic macromolecules, which are thermodynamically incompatible in solution, generating two immiscible aqueous phases. Highly stable water-in-water emulsions can be formulated using fully biocompatible and edible components, and consequently, these emulsions can be used in food and pharmaceutical formulations, among many other interesting applications.