https://phys.org/news/2018-06-smallest-nanoparticle-stabilized-nanoemulsions-technique.html

"Nanotechnology has a huge role to play in dealing with many problems in today's time. Take oil-water emulsions as an example. Going 'nano' with droplet sizes can make huge difference in the shelf-life of many emulsion based products like cosmetics, food products, drug delivery, and many multi-billion dollar industries. Typically surfactant molecules are used to prevent drops from coming together. But such molecules can have adverse effects in many cases. So, there is a growing interest in making surfactant-free nanoparticle stabilized emulsions," said Anand.   

The challenge the team faced was making nanoparticle-based, nano-droplet emulsions, which are called Pickering emulsions. "Making such emulsions with droplets in nanoscales has been a really big challenge for many decades," observed Anand.