Reaction‐controlled microgel‐lipase co‐stabilized compartmentalized emulsion for recyclable biodiesel production

Pickering emulsions have been widely used for biphasic catalysis in the past decade. However, it remains a great challenge to achieve simple product collection and enzyme recovery. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-based microgels can endow with stimuli-responsiveness, while most microgel-stabilized are oil-in-water (O/W) type not ideal interfacial catalysis. Besides, altering temperature or pH value demulsification is time- energy-consuming may cause irreversible deactivation of enzymes. In this work, inverse water-in-oil (W/O) were formed using hexanoic acid-swollen as sole emulsifiers. When lipase was added water phase, stable oil-in-water-in-oil (O/W/O) double could be through one-step emulsification, owing synergistic effect hydrophobic hydrophilic at interface. Compared other systems, such emulsion systems represent desirable platform highly efficient biodiesel production because ultra-high areas fast mass transport between two phases. More importantly, switchable transition hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity controlled by catalytic reaction. Therefore, demulsify spontaneously when substrates up without need energy input loss enzymatic activity, enabling facile products demonstrating excellent recyclability system.