  A framework is developed to allow emulsification to be used to fabricate
functional structures from, and study the properties of, pristine layered
nanosheets. Liquid-exfoliated few-layer graphene and MoS2 are demonstrated to
stablize emulsions which exhibit system-scale electrical conductivity at
ultra-low nanosheet volume fractions. When deposited on a substrate, the
controlled drying dynamics of these emulsions facilitates their application as
inks where the lack of any coffee ring effect allows manual deposition of high
conductivity films. In order to broaden the range of compositions and
subsequently applications, an understanding of emulsion stability and
orientation in terms of surface energy of the three phases is developed.
Importantly, this model facilitates determination of the surface energies of
the nanosheets themselves and subsequently allows design of emulsions. Finally,
emulsification by surfactant-exfoliated nanosheets and emulsion inversion using
basic solution are demonstrated to allow water-based processing where
composition and orientation can be tailored to enable applications.
