Por Martin F. Haase (Van’t Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Debye Institute of Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands).

Fluid-bicontinuous gels (bijels) are a recent class of soft materials that allow two immiscible fluids to interact within a porous solid.[1,2] Current limitations for their applications are the limited control over their non-equilibrium assembly process, and the inability to flow liquids through them.[2,3] Here, we investigate a scalable synthesis route to obtain bijels with consistent, nanostructured channels. The mechanism controlling the interfacial self-assembly is explained based on experimental data and computer simulations. Moreover, we show that liquids can be pumped through the bijel via electroosmosis. The fast fluid transport enables continuous flow liquid-liquid extraction in the bijel. The high surface areas of the bijels obtained here (2 m2/cm3), and the liquid flow enhance the potentials of bijels as highly permeable porous materials with applications as microreaction media, fuel-cell components, and separation membranes.

[1] Stratford, K., Adhikari, R., Pagonabarraga, I., Desplat, J. C., & Cates, M. E. (2005). Colloidal jamming at interfaces: A route to fluid-bicontinuous gels. Science, 309(5744), 2198-2201.
[2] Haase, M. F., Stebe, K. J., & Lee, D. (2015). Continuous fabrication of hierarchical and asymmetric bijel microparticles, fibers, and membranes by solvent transfer‐induced phase separation (STRIPS). Advanced Materials, 27(44), 7065-7071.
[3] Haase, M. F., Jeon, H., Hough, N., Kim, J. H., Stebe, K. J., & Lee, D. (2017). Multifunctional nanocomposite hollow fiber membranes by solvent transfer induced phase separation. Nature communications, 8(1), 1-7.
[4] Kharal, S. P., & Haase, M. F. (2022). Centrifugal Assembly of Helical Bijel Fibers for pH Responsive Composite Hydrogels. Small, 2106826.

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