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A dynamic in vitro human stomach (DIVHS), simulating the anatomical structures, peristalsis, and biochemical environments of a real stomach as practically as possible, was applied to mimic the gastric pH and emptying during yogurt digestion in short/long gastric residence times. The influences of peristalsis, dilution, and proteolysis on digesta viscosity were quantified respectively, indicating the dominant role of proteolysis and dilution. After incorporating curcumin-whey protein microparticles with targeted-release formula in yogurt, the peak curcumin release during intestinal digestion reached 43% at 120 min in the short gastric residence time and 16% at 180 min in the long gastric residence time. The change in the maximum curcumin release depended on the gastric emptying kinetics in each residence time. This emptying-kinetics dependence was reflected by the slower microparticle disintegration and proteolysis in the long gastric residence time. The dynamic reproduction of realistic gastric conditions using DIVHS helps revealing controlled release from foods.

This study aims to understand impact of sodium alginate addition on binary whey/pea protein-stabilised emulsions at various pH. The properties and stability of binary whey/pea protein-stabilised emulsions were characterised by microstructural analysis, droplet size, creaming index in comparison to sole proteins. Protein composition at oil/water interface was examined via SDS-PAGE. Alginate incorporation reduced the droplet sizes and enhanced the emulsion stability at pH 6.6. At pH 11.0, protein only-stabilised emulsion was stable for 21 days, while alginate addition resulted in phase separation in the binary whey/pea protein-stabilised emulsions. The presence of alginate promoted protein adsorption at all pH with both proteins present at the interface. Whey protein displaced pea protein in the binary whey/pea protein-stabilised emulsions over time, whereas alginate addition prevented pea protein from being replaced by whey protein during storage, enhancing their stability. Binary whey/pea proteins with sodium alginate are promising emulsifiers with potential application for liquid creamers.

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) membranes have been intensively evaluated for desalination and ionic sieving applications, benefiting from their stable and well-confined interlayer channels. However, rGO membranes generally suffer from low permeability due to the high transport resistance resulting from the narrowed two-dimensional (2D) channels. Although high permeability can be realized by reducing membrane thickness, membrane selectivity normally declines because of the formation of non-selective defects, in particular pinholes. In this study, we demonstrate that the non-selective defects in ultrathin rGO membranes can be effectively minimised by a facile posttreatment via surface-deposition of graphene quantum dots (GQDs). The resultant GQDs/rGO membranes obtained a good trade-off between water permeance (14 L⋅m−2⋅h−1⋅MPa−1) and NaCl rejection (91%). This work provides new insights into the design of high quality ultrathin 2D laminar membranes for desalination, molecular/ionic sieving and other separation applications.

Plant-derived protein research has gained attention in recent years due to the rise of health concerns, allergenicity, trends toward vegan diet, food safety, and sustainability; but the lower techno-functional attributes of plant proteins compared to those of animals still remain a challenge for their utilization. Maillard conjugation is a protein side-chain modification reaction which is spontaneous, and do not require additional chemical additive to initiate the reaction. The glycoconjugates formed during the reaction significantly improves the thermal stability and pH sensitivity of proteins. The modification of plant-derived protein using Maillard conjugation requires a comprehensive understanding of the influence of process conditions on the conjugation process. These factors can be used to establish a correlation with different functional and bioactive characteristics, to potentially adapt this approach for selective functionality enhancement and nutraceutical development. This review covers recent advances in plant-derived protein modification using Maillard conjugation, including different pretreatments to modify the functionality and bioactivity of plant proteins and their potential uses in practice. An overview of different properties of conjugates and MRPs, including food safety aspects, is given.

In this study, the effect of rennet casein hydration on the properties of a block-type processed cheese was explored by varying casein hydration in the presence of water and different emulsifying salts between 0−120 min. Both hydration time and emulsifying salt type were observed to have distinct effects on casein hydration, with gel strength increasing with increasing hydration time to a point of maximum viscosity dependant on the specific salt used. The rate of hydration was found to be directly proportional to calcium sequestration rate of the emulsifying salt. Use of rennet casein gel at maximum gel strength in the manufacture of a block-type processed cheese lead to an increase in cheese hardness, meltability and fat homogenisation due to the increase in protein intermolecular bonding as identified by changes in ester and alcohol IR frequencies. This work is of significance to the dairy industry as it shows accurate determination of optimal casein hydration conditions can directly affect casein functionality and product characteristics.

Curcumin is a bioactive food component, with poor bioaccessibility due to low water solubility and stability. Spray drying retained and in fact enhanced curcumin-whey protein isolate (WPI) complexation via desolvation, lowering the amount of unbound curcumin to <5% wt after drying, forming microparticles with better water solubility, stability, and bioaccessibility than raw curcumin. The desolvated microparticles encapsulated 3.47 ± 0.05 mg/g curcumin, almost one order of magnitude higher than the un-desolvated sample 0.37 ± 0.03 mg/g. After incorporation into yogurt, the rapid-release formula liberated 87% curcumin, whereas the targeted-release one discharged 44% before entering the simulated intestinal condition. Most of the yogurt sensory properties were not adversely affected, except for colour and curcumin flavour. This study proposed a strategy in which food ingredients containing hydrophobic bioactive small molecules can be incorporated into a food matrix to improve bioaccessibility and targeted release, without affecting their sensory properties.

Layer-by-layer graphene oxide (GO) membrane in principle has great potential in separating Li+ from monovalent cations, which is achieved by their functionalized interlayer entrance. The edge effects on different monovalent ions, however, are not fully understood. Therefore, molecular dynamics simulations were utilized in this study to separately elucidate the filtration effects of three typical edge functional groups, which were carboxyl (COOH), hydroxyl (OH), and hydrogen (H), on the LiCl, NaCl, and KCl solutions. The results revealed that the water permeance was dominantly influenced by the steric size of edge functional groups. It could also be affected by the ions blocked at the entrance. The drastic dehydration of the hydrated Na+ and K+ caused by the OH edge required more energy that led to higher ion rejection. The compressed-dehydrated hydration shell, which was tuned by the edge functional groups, introduced repulsion from Na+ and attraction from Li+ on Cl− when they were 3–5 Å away from each other. It would be strategic to use all three edge functional groups to retain NaCl in the retentate stream while allowing selective permeance of LiCl and the OH edge could additionally retain KCl.

A theoretical framework based on the reference-component centered coordinates was modified to enable the prediction study of the simultaneous absorption and evaporation of droplets consisting of two volatiles. A new equation of Robin boundary condition was imposed at the droplet-ambience interface, coupling with a new numerical scheme for solution. Experimental validation was performed with the following situations: evaporation of single pure droplet and bicomponent droplet, and simultaneous absorption and evaporation of droplet. The model predicted the mass profiles reasonably well for droplet evaporation while over-prediction was found for the case of simultaneous absorption and evaporation of droplet. Further preliminary evaluation has found the necessity to encounter the phenomenon of mass flux depression when predicting the simultaneous absorption and evaporation of droplet. This will provide a potential predictive tool for the processes which involves droplet absorption, such as antisolvent-vapor precipitation and gas scrubbing.

Vaccines against blood-stage malaria often aim to induce antibodies to neutralize parasite entry into red blood cells, interferon gamma (IFNγ) produced by T helper 1 (Th1) CD4+ T cells or interleukin 4 (IL-4) produced by T helper 2 (Th2) cells to provide B cell help. One vaccine delivery method for suitable putative malaria protein antigens is the use of nanoparticles as vaccine carriers. It has been previously shown that antigen conjugated to inorganic nanoparticles in the viral-particle size range (~40–60 nm) can induce protective antibodies and T cells against malaria antigens in a rodent malaria challenge model. Herein, it is shown that biodegradable pullulan-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (pIONPs) can be synthesized in this same size range. The pIONPs are non-toxic and do not induce conventional pro-inflammatory cytokines in vitro and in vivo. We show that murine blood-stage antigen MSP4/5 from Plasmodium yoelii could be chemically conjugated to pIONPs and the use of these conjugates as immunogens led to the induction of both specific antibodies and IFNγ CD4+ T cells reactive to MSP4/5 in mice, comparable to responses to MSP4/5 mixed with classical adjuvants (e.g., CpG or Alum) that preferentially induce Th1 or Th2 cells individually. These results suggest that biodegradable pIONPs warrant further exploration as carriers for developing blood-stage malaria vaccines.

Background: Due to perceived health benefits and increasing consumption trends, plant proteins in their entirety or as partial substitutes have been employed in various food formulations. With the demand for ‘clean label’, there is an increasing need to develop proteins from plant sources as natural food emulsifiers, with comparable properties to traditionally used dairy proteins. A comprehensive and systematic comparison between emulsifying properties of dairy and plant proteins is of interest to the food industry, with the shift towards reducing the usage of animal proteins in food manufacturing. Scope and approach: This review presents the comparison between dairy and plant proteins as natural food emulsifiers, underlining the mechanisms elicited from their structures and compositions. It covers the factors influencing the performance of mixed protein systems in emulsion, and the trends for food developers regarding potential applications. Key findings and conclusions: The emulsifying properties of food proteins are highly dependent on protein sources, structure, molecular weight, and adsorption behavior. Insights into the relationship between protein structure and emulsifying functionality of dairy and plant proteins under specific conditions, and the suitability of plant proteins as alternative to dairy proteins as natural food emulsifiers are provided.

This book examines numerous nanoparticle-based drug systems such as nanocrystals, dendrimers, polymeric micelles, protein-based, carbon nanotube, and liposomes that can offer advantages over traditional drug delivery systems such as ...

This book examines numerous nanoparticle-based drug systems such as nanocrystals, dendrimers, polymeric micelles, protein-based, carbon nanotube, and liposomes that can offer advantages over traditional drug delivery systems such as ...

Although a plant protein film is a promising alternative to petroleum-based plastic films, the insoluble nature of some plant proteins still limits their use as film-forming materials. Alkali and thermal treatments are traditional methods to produce films from proteins with low solubility, which might pose a risk of caustic burns and harmful substances. Three innovative strategies for the preparation of film-forming precursors were proposed in this study, namely, a new solvent system using malic acid, a resist folding structure modified by wool keratin, and an electrostatic bound structure by citrus peel pectin. Furthermore, we successfully prepared these three types of rice protein films using glycerin and thermal treatments. The results showed that the film prepared with malic acid has the lowest haze, opacity, and water vapor transmission ability, and the film containing wool keratin has the highest mechanical strength and water resistance. The addition of pectin provided more pronounced whiteness (p < 0.01) and rapid biodegradability compared with that for the film produced under conventional alkaline conditions. This work demonstrates facile preparation methods for safer and skin-friendly rice protein films and enlightens broad interests in the potential towards completely environment-friendly plant protein films as well.

Transition metal-based nanomaterials represent an emerging class of highly active and low-cost precatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline electrolyzers. However, most OER precatalysts undergo slow or incomplete self-reconstructions to generate real active sites, which is a time-consuming process for achieving high OER performance. Thus, we report a new class of OER precatalysts that can achieve highly active OER species by a rapid and deep self-reconstruction (denoted by SELF-RECON). The precatalysts with a core-shell structure comprising NiMoO4 (core) and NiFe/NiFeOx nanoparticles in N-doped amorphous carbons (shell) (denoted by NiMoFeO@NC), can realize rapid MoO42− dissolution and fast formation of NiOOH with Fe incorporation simultaneously. In situ Raman spectroscopy together with electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and electrochemical tests indicate that the obtained NiFeOOH/NiFe-LDH after SELF-RECON behave as the real active species that outperform NiMoFeO@NC, with ultralow overpotentials and extraordinary long-term stability.

Biological proton channels are sub-1-nm protein pores with ultrahigh proton (H+) selectivity over other ions. Inspired by biological proton channels, developing artificial proton channels with biological-level selectivity is of fundamental significance for separation science. Herein we report synthetic proton channels fabrication based on sulfonated metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), UiO-66-X, X = SAG, NH-SAG, (NH-SAG)2 (SAG: sulfonic acid groups), which have sub-1-nm windows and a high density of sulfonic acid groups mimicking natural proton channels. The ion conductance of UiO-66-X channels follows the sequence: H+ ≫ K+ > Na+> Li+, and the sulfonated UiO-66 derivative channels show proton selectivity much higher than that of the pristine UiO-66 channels. Particularly, the UiO-66-(NH-SAG)2 channels exhibit ultrahigh proton selectivities, H+/Li+ up to ∼100, H+/Na+ of ∼80, and H+/K+ of ∼70, which are ∼3 times of that of UiO-66-NH-SAG channels, and ∼15 times of that of UiO-66@SAG channels. The ultrahigh proton selectivity in the sulfonated sub-1-nm MOF channels is mainly attributed to the narrow window-cavity pore structure functionalized with nanoconfined high-density sulfonic acid groups that facilitate fast proton transport and simultaneously exclude other cations. Our work opens an avenue to develop functional MOF channels for selective ion conduction and efficient ion separation.

Summary Effective design of bifunctional catalysts for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is important but remains challenging. Herein, we report a three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical structure composed of homogeneously distributed Ni-Fe-P nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbons on nickel foams (denoted as Ni-Fe-P@NC/NF) as an excellent bifunctional catalyst. This catalyst was fabricated by an anion exchange method and a low-temperature phosphidation of nanotubular Prussian blue analogue (PBA). The Ni-Fe-P@NC/NF displayed exceptional catalytic activity toward both HER and OER and delivered an ultralow cell voltage of 1.47 V to obtain 10 mA cm−2 with extremely excellent durability for 100 h when assembled as a practical electrolyser. The extraordinary performance of Ni-Fe-P@NC/NF is attributed to the abundance of unsaturated active sites, the well-defined hierarchical porous structure, and the synergistic effect between multiple components. Our work will inspire more rational designs of highly active non-noble electrocatalysts for industrial energy applications.

The construction of biological proton channel analogues has attracted substantial interest owing to their wide potential in separation of ions, sensing, and energy conversion. Here, metal–organic framework (MOF)/polymer heterogeneous nanochannels are presented, in which water molecules are confined to disordered clusters in the nanometer-sized polymer regions and to ordered chains with unique molecular configurations in the 1D sub-1-nm porous MOF regions, to realize unidirectional, fast, and selective proton transport properties, analogous to natural proton channels. Given the nano-to-subnano confined water junctions, experimental proton conductivities in the polymer-to-MOF direction of the channels are much higher than those in the opposite direction, showing a high rectification up to 500 and one to two orders of magnitude enhancement compared to the conductivity of proton transport in bulk water. The channels also show a good proton selectivity over other cations. Theoretical simulations further reveal that the preferential and fast proton conduction in the nano-to-subnano channel direction is attributed to extremely low energy barriers for proton transport from disordered to ordered water clusters. This study opens a novel approach to regulate ion permeability and selectivity of artificial ion channels.

In this work, we demonstrated for the first time the feasibility of the mild annealing for partially reducing graphene oxide (GO) membranes, to create more ordered two-dimensional (2D) laminar channels for nanofiltration. The physicochemical change of GO membranes during the mild annealing process was systematically characterized, results show mild annealing not only stabilized graphene oxide membranes by transforming the oxygen functional groups and narrowing the laminar channels of the GO membranes but also enable tunable salt rejection of the resultant membranes. Compared to reduced graphene oxide (rGO) membranes thermally treated at a higher temperature (150 °C), the mild annealing reduced GO membrane (MRGO) achieved higher water permeance and Na2SO4 selectivity owing to its more ordered laminar structure. This work sheds light on the preparing of high-performance GO-based membranes as well as the transport mechanism within 2D laminar channels.

High desalination efficiency in principle could be achieved by layer-by-layer graphene oxide (GO) membranes, which benefits from their entrance-functionalized channels assembled by edge-functionalized GO nanosheets. The effects of these edge functional groups on desalination, however, are not fully understood yet. To study the isolated influence of three typical edge functional groups, namely, carboxyl (-COOH), hydroxyl (-OH), and hydrogen (-H), molecular dynamics simulation was used in this work. The results revealed that the edge volumetric blockage effect, resulting in ion permeability at G-H > G-OH > G-COOH membranes, was the dominant mechanistic effect inside the GO membranes with 7 Å interlayer channels. The OH edge has the same effect as the H edge in NaCl/water selectivity because of a unique "ion pulling" effect. Moreover, the OH and H edge-functionalized membranes with 7 Å interlayer channels showed preferential Na+ and Cl- rejections, respectively. This kind of preference leads to a cycle of charging and neutralization in the penetrant reservoir throughout the filtration process. The results from this work suggested that it would be strategic to keep the COOH and H edge functional groups, to maintain the size of interlayer channels in order to stimulate the effects of edge functional groups, and to increase the membrane porosity for designing higher desalination efficiency GO membranes.

Spray drying is an established technique, which widely employs cylinder-on-cone type chambers. The air flow patterns inside such chambers are usually governed by transient fluctuations, which impact particle movement and drying history. To understand this impact, CFD using Lagrangian particle tracking through Eulerian flow-field was employed. The simulations revealed transient flow structures due to central jet deflections followed by rotating upwards sweep and formation of vortices. The self-sustained-fluctuations were intensified by high velocity of the main hot air inlet, while lower temperature thereof led to smoother fluctuations. Detailed numerical analyses on particles sampled at the outlet revealed that the distinct transient flow-field actually reduced the particle residence time compared to the residence time estimated via a simplified method ignoring flow-field fluctuations, while generating a wider distribution. No simple correlation was ascertained between the particle size and the residence time distributions, which indicates all sizes considered in the work are affected similarly by the air flow. These findings will benefit the designing of spray dryers.

Spray drying is commonly used to manufacture food and dairy powders at industrial scale. Bioactive peptides, as hydrolysis products from various food proteins, are gaining interest due to their biological functionality including immunomodulation, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties. This article reviews several bioactive peptides/hydrolysates from different food sources, focusing on their processing and final powder characteristics. Additionally, we propose a strategy for encapsulation of food peptide/hydrolysate via spray drying. The identification of suitable drying parameters and/or formulation could help overcome the limitations associated with the current processing of food peptides.

Despite developments in pulmonary radiotherapy, radiation‐induced lung toxicity remains a problem. More sensitive lung imaging able to increase the accuracy of diagnosis and radiotherapy may help reduce this problem. Super‐paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are used in imaging, but without further modification can cause unwanted toxicity and inflammation. Complex carbohydrate and polymer‐based coatings have been used, but simpler compounds may provide additional benefits. Herein, we designed and generated super‐paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles coated with the neutral natural dietary amino acid glycine (GSPIONs), to support non‐invasive lung imaging and determined particle biodistribution, as well as understanding the impact of the interaction of these nanoparticles with lung immune cells. These GSPIONs were characterized to be crystalline, colloidally stable, with a size of 12 ± 5 nm and a hydrodynamic diameter of 84.19 ± 18 nm. Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen (CHN) elemental analysis estimated approximately 20.2 × 103 glycine molecules present per nanoparticle. We demonstrated that it is possible to determine the biodistribution of the GSPIONs in the lung using three‐dimensional (3D) ultra‐short echo time magnetic resonance imaging. The GSPIONs were found to be taken up selectively by alveolar macrophages and neutrophils in the lung. In addition, the GSPIONs did not cause changes to airway resistance or induce inflammatory cytokines. Alveolar macrophages and neutrophils are critical regulators of pulmonary inflammatory diseases, including allergies, infections, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Therefore, pulmonary Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging and preferential targeting of these lung resident cells by our nanoparticles offer precise imaging tools, which can be utilized to develop precision targeted radiotherapy as well as diagnostic tools for lung cancer, thereby having the potential to reduce the pulmonary complications of radiation.

The blend of fish oil with a high percentage of long chain poly-unsaturated fatty acids, and milkfat with a high percentage of saturated fatty acids, could potentially demonstrate desirable characteristics from both components, such as increased omega-3 fatty acids and melting point, as well as improved crystallization and oxidative stability. In this study, the effect of various milkfat concentrations on thermal properties and crystalline structure of these blends were analysed to understand parameters determining the overall characteristics of the blend. Blends with different ratios of fish oil: milkfat (9:1, 7:3, 5:5, 3:7, 1:9), as well as pure fish oil and pure milkfat, were investigated at different cooling conditions. The crystallization behaviour in all samples shifted to lower temperature ranges, by increasing the cooling rate from 1 to 32 °C/min. However, the changes in cooling rate did not have significant effect on the melting profile of the samples. Whereas changes in milkfat ratio affect both the crystallization and melting behaviour. New crystallization peaks were observed on DSC spectra between the range of −4 to −13 °C in the blends. Moreover, new melting peaks appeared in two ranges of −1 to −8 °C and 8–9 °C, in the blends. The crystallization and melting behaviour of the blends were similar to those of milkfat when >30% milkfat was used. This was further confirmed via XRD where milkfat demonstrated the dominant polymorphic behaviour. Regarding shape of the crystals, fractal dimension analysis showed a similarity between clusters in blends containing 50% milkfat or higher. Increasing the ratio of milkfat led to an increase in fractal dimension which indicates higher mass-spatial distribution of the crystal networks in the blends. The data showed that adding 30% or more milkfat to pure fish oil resulted in blends demonstrating similar characteristics to milkfat, including thermal, structural, and oxidative stability. This shows the potential of blend

Controlled agglomeration during spray drying offers several advantages for both powder manufacturers and consumers, and thus it is commonly implemented by industry. The implementation, however is largely based on experience, given the scarcity of comprehensive prediction tools. A resource-efficient approach to numerically treat agglomerates and yet provide an indication of their structures is desired to perform realistic simulations without the need for high-performance computing. In this work, a new numerical model for the treatment of coalescence and agglomeration was implemented and evaluated at two distinct scales with significantly different particle number densities within a Eulerian-Lagrangian CFD framework. The model could accurately predict the trends in the final particle size distributions and distinguish realistic agglomerate structures occurring under different conditions. Challenges were encountered as a result of how the underlying collision detection routine handles high particle number density. Several strategies are proposed to overcome these challenges. This work constitutes significant progress towards achieving an efficient prediction tool to estimate final powder properties and will prove useful in performing large-scale simulations to design and control agglomeration.

Graphene-based laminar membranes open new avenues for water treatment; in particular, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) membranes with high stability in aqueous solutions are gaining increased attention for desalination. However, the low water permeability of these membranes significantly limits their applications. In this study, the water permeability of thermally reduced GO membrane was increased by a factor of 26 times by creating in-plane nanopores with an average diameter of ?3 nm and a high density of 2.89 × 1015 m-2 via H2O2 oxidation. These in-plane nanopores provide additional transport channels and shorten the transport distance for water molecules. Meanwhile, salt rejection of this membrane is dominated by both the Donnan effect and the size exclusion of the interspaces. Besides, the water permeability and salt rejection of the thermally reduced nanoporous GO membrane can also be simply tuned by adjusting the thermal treatment time and membrane thickness. Additionally, the fabricated membrane exhibited a relatively stable rejection of Na2SO4 during the long-term testing. This work demonstrates a novel and effective strategy for fabricating high-performance laminar rGO membranes for desalination applications.

CoS 2 -MoS 2 nanoflakes decorated MoO 2 (CoMoOS) hybrid submicro-wires with rich active interfaces were synthesized via the sulfuration of CoMoO 4 . They showed excellent activity while synergistically catalyzing the hydrogen evolultion reaction (HER) in basic media by promoting both the water dissociation and hydrogen absorption steps. Thus, the CoMoOS catalysts only needed 123 mV to achieve 10 mA cm -2 with a small Tafel slope in alkaline solutions, and required 1.68 V to obtain the same current density when assembled into an alkaline electrolyser.

Graphene oxide (GO) membranes assembled by GO nanosheets exhibit high water flux because of the unique water channels formed by their functionalized layer-by-layer structure. Although water transport in the GO membrane is in principle influenced by the functional groups at the edges of GO nanosheets, this is yet to be fully understood. To fill this knowledge gap, molecular dynamics simulation was employed in this work to gain insights into the influences of three typical edge functional groups of GO nanosheets: Carboxyl (COOH), hydroxyl (OH), and hydrogen (H). A well-controlled numerical analysis with complete isolation of the functional groups at the edges was undertaken. The results reveal that the COOH group has a negative impact on water transport because of its relatively large steric geometric structure, which resists water flow. By contrast, the OH group promotes water transport by uniquely "pulling" water molecules across the nanosheet layer because of its relatively stronger interaction with water. The H atom promotes water transport as well, mainly because of its low-resistance steric structure. Moreover, the size of the inter-edge hub has an apparent impact on the influence of these functional groups on water transport. The results suggest that in the design of high water flux GO membranes, it would be strategic to remove COOH edge functional groups while maintaining a mixture of OH and H edge functional groups.

The surface structure of crystalline particles affects the functionality of the particles in drug delivery. Prediction of the final structure of particles that crystallize easily within the spray drying process is of interests for many applications. A theoretical framework was developed for the prediction of crystal structure precipitating on the surface of the particle. This model was based on the dimensionless Damkohler number (Da), to be an indicator of final particle morphology. Timescales of evaporation and reaction were required for calculation of the Damkohler number. The modified evaporation time scale was estimated based on the time that is available for the crystal to precipitate after supersaturation. The reaction time scale was estimated based on the time scale for induction time. Mannitol was produced under different processing conditions in order to validate the theoretical model. Results showed for the high Damkohler numbers, the surface structure of the particle was rough, while smaller Damkohler numbers led to relatively smooth particle surfaces. Additionally, although the beta polymorph was dominant in all of the experiments, alpha polymorph was precipitated in the experiments with a large Damkohler number. The theoretical framework developed will be a useful predictive tool to guide the manipulation of particle crystallization in spray dryers.

The worldwide home care industry makes widespread use of granulated laundry powders which must be highly soluble and dissolve rapidly to induce an effective wash cycle. The morphology of these powders influences their dissolution rate. Binder addition methods affect the properties of granulated products. Foam granulation is a method of granulation where a foamed binder is used. This may provide added advantages like: increasing wetted area per liquid mass, reducing saturation, and enhancing dissolution rate through enhanced granule structures or narrower particle size distribution. Here, three separate binder addition methods (spray addition, drop addition and foam addition) were trialled using a lactose and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) based formulation to assess the effect of foam granulation on size, granule structure, and dissolution behaviour. Foam granulation produced smaller granules at the same liquid level, with a different morphology. However, the dissolution kinetics of the foam granules appeared unaffected by foam. Dissolution tests showed that under stagnant conditions, there was no significant difference between dissolution rate or extent between droplet-fed and foam granulation, though spray granulation achieves a much slower dissolution rate than either process. Foam granulation has been proposed to be dependent on formulation properties and further investigation of alternative formulations with different wetting behaviours is required to confirm the effects of foam granulation on structure.