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Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , Developing coating strategies for microaerogel beads to modulate bioactive release in foods(Elsevier, 2026-06-27); ; ; ; The potential of aerogels, highly porous materials with an extensive surface area, to be used as ingredients able to load, protect and deliver bioactive compounds in food has recently attracted significant attention. However, the open-porosity of aerogels favours rapid absorption of both water and digestive fluids, triggering structural collapse and uncontrolled release of the loaded bioactives. In this study, a hydrophobic coating layer was used to finely modulate bioactive release from aerogels. To this aim, aerogel beads were prepared by gelling whey proteins at the isoelectric pH, followed by solvent exchange and supercritical-CO2 drying. The resulting beads showed the typical whey protein microaerogel structure, with interconnected globular particles and a defined mesoporous network, providing a specific surface area of 27 m2/g estimated by QSDFT analysis, which was suitable for bioactive loading. The microaerogel beads were loaded with vanillin, selected as a representative bioactive molecule, and dip-coated in an ethylcellulose (EC) ethanolic solution at varying concentrations (1, 5, and 10 g/100 g). Coating application resulted in the formation of a protective coating layer, with thickness increasing with the EC concentration in the dipping solution, and this led to a marked reduction in the acces sibility of microaerogel mesoporosity to N2 sorption. Uncoated beads exhibited rapid Fickian diffusion of vanillin, while coating application shifted the transport mechanism toward a slower, barrier-controlled mass transfer. These results support aerogels as innovative food-grade delivery systems for controlled release of compounds with target functionalities in foods.Publicationtype: Journal Article28 28 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Access status: without files , High-pressure homogenized citrus fiber cellulose dispersions: Structural characterization and flow behavior(Elsevier, 2021-10-26); ; ; ; Functionalized biomass waste sources of cellulose have drawn attention due to their high availability and sustainability properties. In this work we characterize the structural and flow properties of high-pressure homogenized citrus fiber cellulose dispersions, employing SAXS, rheology and rheo-MRI techniques. The high-pressure treatment disrupts the microfibrillar network within the citrus fibers, but leaves the individual microfibrils intact. Under moderate shear (0.1-100 s-1) in a confined (<1mm) geometry, these functionalized citrus fiber cellulose dispersions exhibit thixotropic shear-banding behavior accompanied by cooperative flow of microfibril flocs with correlation lengths Ɛ-100 µm. The presented findings form a basis towards understanding and manipulating the structural and rheological properties of non-wood biomass cellulose microfibrils under industrially-relevant conditions.Publicationtype: Journal Article31