Widely Adaptable Oil‐in‐Water Gel Emulsions Stabilized by an Amphiphilic Hydrogelator Derived from Dehydroabietic Acid

Abstract A surfactant, R‐6‐AO, derived from dehydroabietic acid has been synthesized. It behaves as a highly efficient low‐molecular‐weight hydrogelator with an extremely low critical gelation concentration (CGC) of 0.18 wt % (4 m m ). R‐6‐AO not only stabilizes oil‐in‐water (O/W) emulsions at concentrations above its critical micelle concentration (cmc) of 0.6 m m , but also forms gel emulsions at concentrations beyond the CGC with the oil volume fraction freely adjustable between 2 % and 95 %. Cryo‐TEM images reveal that R‐6‐AO molecules self‐assemble into left‐handed helical fibers with cross‐sectional diameters of about 10 nm in pure water, which can be turned to very stable hydrogels at concentrations above the CGC. The gel emulsions stabilized by R‐6‐AO can be prepared with different oils (n‐dodecane, n‐decane, n‐octane, soybean oil, olive oil, tricaprylin) owing to the tricyclic diterpene hydrophobic structure in their molecules that enables them to adopt a unique arrangement in the fibers.