Fig. 4. An illustration of the particle locations during the formation of Pickering emulsion: (A) hydrophilic SiO2 particles are initially dispersed in the oil phase, (B) SiO2 particles migrate to the oil–water interfaces and reach a contact angle of ∼90° to stabilize the emulsion droplets, and (C) due to the high detachment energy, the hydrophilic SiO2 particles are not prone to detaching from the interfaces and transferring to the water phase. (D) A graphic displaying the theoretical variation of the detachment energy (kT) as a function of the contact angle.
