No abstract

Naturally sourced gels from food biopolymers have advanced in recent decades to compare favourably in performance and breadth of application to their synthetic counterparts. Here, we comprehensively review the constitutive nature, gelling mechanisms, design approaches, and structural and mechanical properties of food gels. We then consider how these food gel design principles alter rheological and tribological properties for food quality improvement, nutrient-modification of foods while preserving sensory perception, and targeted delivery of drugs and bioactives within the gastrointestinal tract. We propose that food gels may offer advantages over their synthetic counterparts owing to their source renewability, low cost, biocompatibility and biodegradability. We also identify emerging approaches and trends that may improve and expand the current scope, properties and functionalities of food gels and inspire new applications.

We report a new strategy for efficient removal of F− from contaminated water streams, and it relies on carbon hybrid membranes made of amyloid fibril/ZrO2 nanoparticles (<10 nm). These membranes exhibit superior selectivity for F− against various competitive ions, with a distribution coefficient (Kd) as high as 6820 mL g−1, exceeding commercial ion‐exchange resins (IRA‐900) by 180 times and outdoing the performance of most commercial carbon‐activated aluminum membranes. At both low and high (ca. 200 mg L−1) F− concentrations, the membrane efficiency exceeds 99.5 % removal. For real untreated municipal tap water (ca. 2.8 mg L−1) under continuous operating mode, data indicates that about 1750 kg water m−2 membrane can be treated while maintaining drinking water quality, and the saturated membranes can be regenerated and reused several times without decrease in performance. This technology is promising for mitigating the problem of fluoride water contamination worldwide.

Because of a large difference in storage modulus below and above the glass transition temperature, poly(acrylic acid-co-methyl methacrylate)/poly(ethylene glycol) (P(AA-co-MMA)/PEG) complexes show shape memory properties with a recovery ratio of nearly reach 99%. Before the shape memory testing, it was necessary to determine the conformational changes of the P(AA-co-MMA) gel induced by complexation with linear PEG. It was found that both the concentration and molecular weight of PEG have a strong effect on the complexation with P(AA-co-MMA) gel. In such a system the minimum molecular weight of PEG required for the complex formation lowers to 1000.