Ethylene scavenging properties from hydroxypropyl methylcellulose-TiO2 and gelatin-TiO2 nanocomposites on polyethylene supports for fruit application

Jéssica de Matos Fonseca; Nelson Yurako Londoño Pabón; Germán Ayala Valencia; Leandro Guarezi Nandi; Marta Elisa Rosso Dotto; Regina de Fátima Peralta Muniz Moreira; Alcilene Rodrigues Monteiro

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2021.02.160

Ethylene scavenging properties from hydroxypropyl methylcellulose-TiO₂ and gelatin-TiO₂ nanocomposites on polyethylene supports for fruit application

Int J Biol Macromol. 2021 May 1:178:154-169. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2021.02.160. Epub 2021 Feb 24.

Authors

Jéssica de Matos Fonseca¹, Nelson Yurako Londoño Pabón², Germán Ayala Valencia³, Leandro Guarezi Nandi³, Marta Elisa Rosso Dotto⁴, Regina de Fátima Peralta Muniz Moreira⁵, Alcilene Rodrigues Monteiro⁶

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Physical Properties of Foods, Chemical and Food Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, UFSC, Brazil. Electronic address: jessicamatosfonseca@gmail.com.
² Laboratory of Heat Pipes, Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, UFSC, Brazil.
³ Laboratory of Physical Properties of Foods, Chemical and Food Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, UFSC, Brazil.
⁴ Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics and Anisotropic Systems, Physics Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, UFSC, Brazil.
⁵ Laboratory of Energy and Environment, Chemical and Food Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, UFSC, Brazil.
⁶ Laboratory of Physical Properties of Foods, Chemical and Food Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina, UFSC, Brazil. Electronic address: alcilene.fritz@ufsc.br.

PMID: 33639189
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2021.02.160

Abstract

Several technologies have been proposed to preserve fruits and to avoid postharvest losses. The degradation of ethylene produced by the fruits using TiO₂ photocatalysis has shown to be a good option to delay the ripening of fruits. This paper proposed a new application of biopolymers-TiO₂ nanocomposites developed to extend the shelf-life of fruits. Photocatalytic coatings were applied on the expanded polyethylene foam nets to degrade ethylene. Gelatin and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HMPC) were tested as hydrophobic and hydrophilic matrices for the TiO₂ incorporation. First, nanocomposite films prepared by casting were evaluated with regards to their photocatalytic properties. Both matrices, which were loaded with 1 wt% TiO₂, degraded 40% of the ethylene injected in a batch reactor. By Langmuir-Hinshelwood model, ethylene degradation using gelatin-TiO₂ films (k_app = 0.186 ± 0.021 min^-1) was faster than the HPMC-TiO₂ films (k_app = 0.034 ± 0.003 min^-1). Then, gelatin-TiO₂ dispersion was applied as a coating on the foam nets by dip coating. The gelatin-TiO₂ bilayer exhibited higher concentration of ethylene degraded per photocatalytic area and photocatalyst mass unit (13.297 ± 0.178 ppmv m² [Formula: see text] ) than its film form (18.212 ± 1.157 ppmv m² [Formula: see text] ), which makes gelatin-TiO₂/foam nets a promising composite design for fruit postharvest application.

Keywords: Active material; Ethylene degradation; Photocatalysis.

MeSH terms

Biopolymers / chemistry*
Ethylenes / chemistry*
Food Storage / methods*
Fruit / chemistry*
Titanium / chemistry*

Substances

Biopolymers
Ethylenes
titanium dioxide
ethylene
Titanium