Designing Gels for Food Packaging

A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 4807

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Food Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715‎, China
Interests: biopolymers for food packaging; fruit and vegetable storage and preservation; active and intelligent food packaging materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Food Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715‎, China‎
Interests: active and intelligent food packaging materials; biodegradable packaging materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the modern food industry, food packaging plays a role that cannot be overlooked as few foods are sold without packaging. Good packaging prevents waste and ensures that the food retains its desired quality throughout its shelf life. Gels, including hydrogels, aerogels, organogels, ionic gels, colloidal gels, etc., which have a semi-solid colloidal or polymer network and can be used for absorbing or loading various functional agents, have numbered applications in food packaging, so more research efforts are needed in this area. Most research interests are focused on the preparation and design of hydrogels from biopolymers such as chitosan, pectin, gelatin, cellulose and its derivatives, etc., and the application as active packaging materials or intelligent packaging materials, such as absorbent pads, and an indicator for food packaging applications, while very few articles have explored aerogels.

For this Special Issue, short communications, full research papers, and review papers on the topic of “Designing Gels for Food Packaging”, which aim at the design of functional gels for the food packaging applications, e.g., hydrogels, aerogels, and so on, and include the synthesis and characterization of the above-mentioned materials, are encouraged for submission. The gels designed in these papers are required to be included with the applications for food packaging or storage.

Dr. Changqing Ruan
Prof. Dr. Dan Xu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • food packaging
  • food storage and preservation
  • biopolymers
  • hydrogels
  • aerogels
  • active packaging
  • intelligent packaging
  • synthesis and characterization

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 3670 KB  
Article
Characterization of a Graphene Oxide-Reinforced Whey Hydrogel as an Eco-Friendly Absorbent for Food Packaging
by Pompilia Mioara Purcea Lopes, Dumitrita Moldovan, Radu Fechete, Liviu Mare, Lucian Barbu-Tudoran, Niculina Sechel and Violeta Popescu
Gels 2023, 9(4), 298; https://doi.org/10.3390/gels9040298 - 3 Apr 2023
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4081
Abstract
This study presents a structural analysis of a whey and gelatin-based hydrogel reinforced with graphene oxide (GO) by ultraviolet and visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results revealed barrier properties in the UV range for the [...] Read more.
This study presents a structural analysis of a whey and gelatin-based hydrogel reinforced with graphene oxide (GO) by ultraviolet and visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results revealed barrier properties in the UV range for the reference sample (containing no graphene oxide) and the samples with minimal GO content of 0.66×103% and 3.33×103%, respectively, in the UV-VIS and near-IR range; for the samples with higher GO content, this was 6.67×103% and 33.33×103% as an effect of the introduction of GO into the hydrogel composite. The changes in the position of diffraction angles 2θ from the X-ray diffraction patterns of GO-reinforced hydrogels indicated a decrease in the distances between the turns of the protein helix structure due to the GO cross-linking effect. Transmission electron spectroscopy (TEM) was used for GO, whilst scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for the composite characterization. A novel technique for investigating the swelling rate was presented by performing electrical conductivity measurements, the results of which led to the identification of a potential hydrogel with sensor properties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Designing Gels for Food Packaging)
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