Bioinspired Edible Lubricant-Infused Surface with Liquid Residue Reduction Properties

Abstract

<jats:p>Inspired by nature’s water-repellent plants, the superhydrophobic surface (SHS) and the lubricant-infused surface (LIS) possess potentials in various fields of application. In particular, the edible SHS and the edible LIS (ELIS) are suitable for the role of high-valued liquid food residue reduction. In this study, the ELIS was introduced through a facile spray method and direct lubricant infusion. Four types of ELISs were fabricated: carnauba wax with ethyl oleate infusion, carnauba wax with cooking oil infusion, beeswax with ethyl oleate infusion, and beeswax with cooking oil infusion. The carnauba wax-coated ELIS has better slipperiness, while the beeswax-coated ELIS has better transparency. The ethyl oleate-infused ELIS possesses ELIS to SHS transformable ability, and the cooking oil-infused ELIS also possesses better slipperiness and has the affordable advantage. Moreover, the material selection of ELIS is accessible, renewable, green, recyclable, and edible. The results illustrated that ELIS has advantages of long-term effectiveness and impact resistance over edible SHS and indicated that the ELIS can be facilitated for the manufacture of a multifunctional liquid residue reduction surface with food safety assurance.</jats:p>

Fabrication of bioinspired edible liquid marble with phase transition and tunable water barrier property

“…The wax-in-ethanol solutions of carnauba wax (purchased from Shanghai Macklin Biochemical Co. Ltd., China) and beeswax (obtained from Solarbio Science & Technology Co. Ltd., China) were prepared using methods previously reported by our research group but with modifications [33,41]. Specifically, 2 g of carnauba wax and beeswax was separately added into flasks with 200 mL of ethanol (purchased from Rionlon, China).…”

“…The edible hydrophobic powder was prepared through two stage evaporations of wax-in-ethanol emulsion. As the previously conducted experiment indicated that both the sprayed coatings of emulsion-prepared carnauba wax and beeswax particles could possess superhydrophobicity [33,41], when water droplet is dropped onto the powder with superhydrophobicity and superareophilicity, the particles act as a surfactant at the water-air interface and have the tendency to warp the droplet for surface free energy minimization to form liquid marble (LM). The SEM images in Figs.…”

“…The heating time, however, requires precise control to maintain the superhydrophobicity of the coating [33]. Therefore, to further simplify the heating process and perform the heating process together with wax powder production, carnauba wax with higher melting point was introduced as a superhydrophobic convex structure [41]. Mixing ratios were set separately to 4:1, 3:1 and 2:1.…”

Femtosecond laser-induced sub-micron and multi-scale topographies for durable lubricant impregnated surfaces for food packaging applications

“…Most of the reported studies employed perfluorinated oils [19-21, 23-24, 26, 29-30], essential and vegetable oils [27][28], and silicone oils [22,25] as lubricants to demonstrate the LIS capabilities in food packaging applications. Although perflourinated oils are extensively used, such lubricants release fluorine similar to that of fluorinated coatings and therefore pose considerable health risks [35].…”

“…Zouaghi et al [21] demonstrated that LIS prepared using hierarchical textures produced through ultrashort laser processing of stainless steel could reduce dairy fouling compared to some reference superhydrophobic surfaces. Several other studies focused on preparing LIS on glass and silicon-based substrates examined their non-wetting properties when in contact with complex liquids [22][23][24][25][26][27]. Although most of these studies involved textured metallic and glass substrates, it should be noted that polymers are predominantly used as food packaging materials.…”