Microfluidics is an emerging technology that can be employed as a powerful tool for designing lipid nano-microsized structures for biological applications. Those lipid structures can be used as carrying vehicles for a wide range of drugs and genetic materials. Microfluidic technology also allows the design of sustainable processes with less financial demand, while it can be scaled up using parallelization to increase production. From this perspective, this article reviews the recent advances in the synthesis of lipid-based nanostructures through microfluidics (liposomes, lipoplexes, lipid nanoparticles, core-shell nanoparticles, and biomimetic nanovesicles). Besides that, this review describes the recent microfluidic approaches to produce lipid micro-sized structures as giant unilamellar vesicles. New strategies are also described for the controlled release of the lipid payloads using microgels and droplet-based microfluidics. To address the importance of microfluidics for lipid-nanoparticle screening, an overview of how microfluidic systems can be used to mimic the cellular environment is also presented. Future trends and perspectives in designing novel nano and micro scales are also discussed herein.

The rheological properties of emulsions stabilized with plant proteins are very different to those formed with other stabilizers. It is useful to relate the microstructure to stability and rheological properties under shear to obtain a clearer understanding of the mechanisms governing shear stability. This study uses rheology-coupled small angle x-ray scattering (rheo-SAXS) to study pea protein dispersions and pea protein stabilized oil-in-water emulsions for various compositions and pH. Rheo-SAXS experiments show that emulsions have isotropic scattering even at shear rates up to 1000 s−1, thus have an excellent resilience to droplet elongation. The observed increase in scattered intensity with time at low momentum transfer corresponds to droplet breakage under shear that is irreversible when the shear rate is reduced. The simultaneous rheological results show shear-thinning and thixotropic behavior with shear stress dependent on both time and the applied shear rate. This is due to a dense network formed by protein in the continuous phase. X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) measurements demonstrate that the relaxation dynamics are mainly translational diffusion with different mobility at different length scales. This complements the rheo-SAXS results that identify the importance of the viscosity and elasticity of the protein network formed in the continuous phase for stability. The low capillary number caused by the high interfacial tension and low shear stresses when flowing provides good routes to droplet formation and eventual emulsion stability.

Moringa oleifera is attracting growing interest as a sustainable source of functional biomolecules for food, nutraceutical, and cosmetic applications, yet the multi-scale structure and slow dynamics of minimally processed seed extracts and the emulsions they stabilize remain insufficiently understood. Here, we investigate a minimally processed pH 3 Moringa oleifera seed extract obtained by aqueous extraction, freeze-drying, and redispersion in pH 3 citrate buffer. Combining spectroscopy, laser diffraction, dynamic light scattering, small- and ultra-small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/USAXS), X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS), rheology, Rheo-SAXS, and confocal microscopy, we relate molecular composition, hierarchical structure, slow dynamics, and macroscopic flow behaviour.SAXS/USAXS identified diffuse nanoscale heterogeneity with a dominant structural population having a radius of gyration of approximately 7.4 nm. XPCS showed predominantly diffusive dynamics with a diffusion coefficient of approximately 1.6 × 10⁻¹³ m² s⁻¹, corresponding to micron-scale diffusing clusters. Combining the extract with cold-pressed Moringa seed oil produced an all-Moringa Pickering emulsion. Following emulsification, the scattering profile became interface-dominated and exhibited Porod-like behaviour (n = -3.957 ± 0.005), with characteristic structural contributions of approximately 2.3 and 24.7 nm. XPCS revealed substantially slower collective mesoscale dynamics, while rheology demonstrated pronounced shear-thinning behaviour. Rheo-SAXS showed that characteristic interfacial length scales were largely preserved under shear, and confocal microscopy revealed coexisting oil-in-water and water-in-oil domains, indicating proximity to a phase-inversion boundary. These results provide a quantitative structure–dynamics picture of acidic Moringa oleifera colloids and establish a transferable multi-technique framework for characterizing minimally processed plant-derived colloidal systems.