Session: General Poster:

Electrospinning has emerged as a promising technique to create and fabricate micro to nano-sized fibers with desired functional, physicochemical, and mechanical properties. In recent years, the interest in the use of electrospun nanofibers for various food application has been increased due to the biocompatibility, biodegradability, high loading capacity and sustained release, and safety aspects because the electrospun nanofibers are usually made from natural polymers. In this study, novel hybrid nanofibers comprising various concentrations of zein with dextran were successfully fabricated and characterized for food applications. The zein addition modified the fiber-beads morphology of pure dextran nanofibers and the diameter showed an increasing trend with an increase in the zein contents. When zein was added at low concentrations (5% and 10%), the dextran and zein showed poor miscibility, reflected by the significantly decreased viscosity of the solutions and poor mechanical properties of the derived nanofibrous films. The hydrophobicity of the nanofibrous films was increased due to the surface dispersion of hydrophobic zein molecules. When zein was added at medium concentration (15 - 25%), hydrogen bonds were formed between dextran and zein molecules, indicated by the red shift of FTIR peaks and the β-sheet to α-helix structural transformation. The intense interactions between dextran and zein molecules resulted in significantly decreased water contact angle for D50Z15, and the hydrophobicity increased gradually by increasing zein content into the D50Z25, which showed a most hydrophobic surface with a contact angle of 116.9^o. The homogenous dispersion of dextran and zein resulted in the improved mechanical properties in terms of elastic modulus and elongation at break. When zein was added at a rate of 30%, caused a significant decrease in the hydrophobicity, and also endowed the desired mechanical properties. The curcumin encapsulated dextran/zein nanofibers exhibited strong radical scavenging activities along with the desired functional properties of controlled release behavior for curcumin delivery by maintaining its inherent antioxidant potential.

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Lingli Deng

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