A comparison of Canthaxanthine Pickering emulsions, stabilized with cellulose nanocrystals of different origins

Cellulosic nanocrystals from different origins were made to stabilize the canthaxanthin (CTX) in pickering emulsion. Nanocrystals were obtained by hydrochloric acid hydrolysis. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) demonstrated that the length of solid particles were in the range of 112 nm-4000 nm. AFM indicated the needle-like shape of the cotton cellulose nanocrystals (CCNs) and bacterial cellulose nanocrystals (BCNs) and also illustrated the thickness of the particles to be 6 and 7 nm respectively. The crystallinity of both BCNs and CCNs was higher than the cellulose source they were isolated (CL: 75.4%, CCNs: 86.6; BC: 79.2%, BCNs: 88.5%). Effects of different factors such as temperature, pH and ionic concentration on stability were investigated. The results revealed that an increase in both temperature and pH was accompanied by an improvement in emulsion stability in all tested samples. However, increase in ionic concentration resulted in emulsions with less stability. In all the samples, CCN emulsions had better stability than the BCN emulsions, which was associated to smaller particle size and more coverage ability. Test of stability to light showed that CCN emulsions can preserve CTX better than BCN against the light.