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Transforming soy proteins into nanoporous aerogels using supercritical carbon dioxide drying
  • Sumanjot Kaur,
  • Jingyi Chen,
  • Ali Ubeyitogullari
Sumanjot Kaur
University of Arkansas
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Jingyi Chen
University of Arkansas
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Ali Ubeyitogullari
University of Arkansas

Corresponding Author:uali@uark.edu

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Abstract

This study investigated the formation and characterization of aerogels from soy protein isolate (SPI) at different pHs (6-10) using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) drying. The extraction yield of proteins was 33% with 92% purity. The formed SPI hydrogels and aerogels were characterized for their rheological properties, textural properties, morphology, crystallinity, chemical structure, thermal stability, and solubility. The gels formed at pH values of 7.0-10.0 were able to form strong gels, where all the gels showed a shear-thinning behavior. The hardness of the gels increased with the increase in pH from 7.0 to 10.0. The resulting SPI aerogels upon SC-CO2 drying showed outstanding properties, such as surface areas of 222-278 m²/g, pore sizes of 8-11 nm, and pore volumes of 1.88-3.13 cm3/g. Their densities were ~0.21 g/cm3 with high porosities of ~83%. Further, SEM images of aerogels showed three-dimensional open porous structures, where the structures were more heterogeneous at higher pH values, leading to a higher surface area. XRD and FTIR data provided information about the crystallinity and changes in the chemical structure of proteins, respectively. The main thermal degradation peak for aerogels was ~295 °C, which was slightly lower than that for SPI powder at 303 °C. The water solubility of SPI powder increased with the formation of aerogels from 17-19% to 30-36%. Overall, this study provides one of the first reports on generating SPI aerogels with high surface areas for their potential use in food, pharmaceutical, and biomaterial industries.
28 Sep 2024Submitted to Sustainable Food Proteins
30 Sep 2024Submission Checks Completed
30 Sep 2024Assigned to Editor
30 Sep 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
03 Oct 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned