Cold plasma‐assisted shape‐shifting of a flat two‐dimensional wheat xerogel and its morphological behavior

Abstract

This study aims at integrating food material with food processing to develop edible shape‐changing foods and investigate the effect of cold plasma treatment on their functionality. The anisotropic structure of the xerogel was obtained by sessile drop drying of the hydrogel. Xerogel discs were exposed to glow discharge plasma at 7.32 W for 5 min. For harnessing shape transformation, ethyl cellulose (constraint material) was applied in a single circle pattern. Upon immersing in hot water shape transformation takes place, and increases in bending curvature, angle, and height were observed for both the samples. The plasma treatment led to surface etching (ablation) of the xerogel. This resulted in better adhesion between constraint material and xerogel and therefore, more bending of plasma‐treated xerogel was observed than the untreated ones signifying a positive effect of cold plasma on shape transformation. Consequently, this method can be explored for the application in four‐dimensional food materials. Practical applications Designing flat two‐dimensional materials capable of undergoing shape transformation into a three‐dimensional configuration during cooking/frying, is an innovative area of research which could facilitate in reducing shipping and packaging costs as well as to engineer user‐customized interactive food materials. Detachment of constraint material from xerogel can be rectified by using cold plasma technique. This engineered shape transformation technique may help in food processing industries through the introduction of four‐dimensional printed food materials.

Development and characterisation of structurally reforming engineered flat‐rice xerogel for hot water cooking

“…Approximately, 1 μl of the constraint material was coated on a single xerogel disc with the help of micropipette in the form of linear strips like pattern. It was allowed to dry for 5 min for the removal of ethanol from the material at ambient condition (Gupta et al ., 2020).…”

Study on the optimization of barley flour xerogel and its programed oleomorphic 3D shape‐shifting

“…First, the prepared xerogels were separated into two groups; in which one group (circular xerogels) was taken as it is for plasma treatment, while the other group of circular xerogels was cut into a triangular shape (using scissors) before they were subjected to plasma treatment. A low‐pressure dielectric barrier discharge plasma system consisting of two aluminum electrodes with 3 cm clearance was used to treat (AC voltage: 1.5 kV, pressure: 0.5 millibars, time: 5 min) barley xerogel and followed by coating with constraint material and investigate the shape change (Anbarasan et al, 2022; Gupta et al, 2020).…”

A comprehensive study on decontamination of food-borne microorganisms by cold plasma

“…Decontamination of grains is hard to perform because of their small size ( Gupta et al, 2020 ). In all these studies (mentioned in the table below) related to inactivation of microorganisms show grains tested under cold plasma to inactivate Penicillium spp .…”