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The ultrasonic (US)-treated batter mixtures of commercial methylcellulose (MC) as the fried potato strips' coating layer were demonstrated. The layer formed a rapid gel that absorbs the substrate's water content and related functional groups that contribute to acrylamide formation reduction. Different concentrations of MC (0.5-2.0 w/v %) mixtures were subjected to US at 20 W to evaluate coating layers' effect prior to the deep-frying process. At 1% w/v concentration batter mixture, the USMC layer reduced the highest acrylamide value. For comparison purposes, the differences in the acrylamide content of the USMC, the non-USMC and the uncoated samples were 64.7 ± 5.04, 156.4 ± 7.44 and 344.1 ± 5.39 ng g-1, respectively. The results were supported with lower oil uptake and water retention of the USMC compared with the non-USMC with the values of 2.2 g/100g and 28.6 g/100g with 5.1 g/100g and 47 g/100g, respectively.

The potential of producing L-isoleucine crystals with the aid of electric potential and its effect on the nucleation kinetics of L-isoleucine were probed using polythermal and isothermal crystallisation techniques, assisted with 5 V, 9 V, and 20 V electric potentials. The polythermal experiments were conducted with cooling rates of 0.1 °C/min–0.7 °C/min, whilst isothermal crystallisation was conducted with a supersaturation of 1.30–1.70, and both were carried out in a 200 mL temperature-controlled jacketed reactor. Prediction of the nucleation rate and its associated parameters for isothermal crystallisation was carried out using a molecular dynamics simulation. In both crystallisation techniques, electric potentials increased the nucleation rate, but the intensity of the electric potential had less impact on the measured parameters. Nucleation rates for 5 V isothermal crystallisation were in the order of 1010 higher than for polythermal crystallisation. Electric potential doubled the nucleation rates for polythermal crystallisation and increased the nucleation rates 12-fold in isothermal crystallisation. The isothermal technique produced the form B polymorph, but mixtures of forms A and B were produced in polythermal crystallisation. The predicted critical number of molecules, N*, and the critical radius, r*, were in good agreement with the experimental data, with a higher predicted nucleation rate in the order of 102

Polyetherimide (PEI) is recognized as a potential candidate for electrochemical sensor matrix which can be used for heavy metal ion and reactive chemical substance sensing applications. However, the relatively low conductivity of PEI material limits its usage of electrochemical sensor applications. Modifying PEI membrane considerably improve the electron conductivity and electrochemical property of polymer. Conductive polyetherimide-graphene oxide (PEI-GO) composite nanofiber membrane was synthesized via electrospinning technique in order to modify electrochemical sensor electrodes. In order to optimize the electrospinning process protocol such as viscosity, surface tension and conductivity and obtained smooth electrospun fiber, PEI were electrospun from two different solvents namely n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and combination of NMP/ dimethylformamide (DMF). Physical and electrical properties of the nanofiber were analysed in terms of its hydrophobicity, porosity and conductivity by manipulating the concentration of PEI from 20 wt% to 30 wt% and GO loading from 0.1 wt% to 0.5 wt%. Electrospun of 25 wt% PEI in NMP/DMF produced the highest porosity and liquid uptake of 97.81% and 2846.23% respectively. The addition of GO at 0.5 wt% into 25 wt% of PEI (NMP/DMF) improved the porosity and liquid uptake up to 98.83% and 5400%,respectively, while the conductivity increases to 32.71 µS/cm which is 10 folds higher than GO free PEI fiber. When the conductivity of drop-casted PEI-GO modified electrodes was compared to the electrospun PEI-GO fiber modified electrodes, the latter showed 2-3 folds higher. Proposed PEI-GO electrospun fiber with the enhanced conductivity, porosity and hydrophobicity along with high chemical stability can be used as an efficient conductive matrix for electrochemical electrode applications such as heavy metal ion sensing and reactive chemical sensing application.