Cellulose nanofibrils from Miscanthus floridulus straw as green particle emulsifier for O/W Pickering emulsion

For high value utilization of energy crops, in this work, a high stable O/W Pickering emulsion had been prepared successfully by using cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) obtained from Miscanthus floridulus straw (MFS). The effect of high pressure homogenization time on the physicochemical properties of the resulted CNFs had been investigated. The obtained CNFs had high surface activity and could spontaneously diffuse to the interface of the O/W phase. The particle adsorption kinetics of CNFs was characteristic of soft particles or Pickering emulsifiers, and the adsorption was irreversible. Therefore, stable oil-in-water Pickering emulsion was obtained by using the CNFs as particle emulsifiers, and the emulsion stabilized by CNFs with only 0.15 wt% exhibited outstanding stability. Moreover, the environmental factors, such as pH values, ionic strength, and temperature had little influence on the stability of the emulsion. All the results indicated that CNFs exhibited promising interfacial activity and powerful emulsifying ability. Owing to the flexible shape of the CNFs, it was concluded that MFS as a kind of energy crop was a promising source to obtain the CNFs for the fabrication of novel food-grade Pickering emulsions.