title: Stabilizing oil-in-water emulsions with regenerated chitin nanofibers.
abstract: Natural chitin is a highly crystalline biopolymer with poor aqueous solubility. Thus direct application of chitin is rather limited unless chemical modifications are made to improve its solubility in aqueous media. Through a simple dissolution and regeneration process, we have successfully prepared chitin nanofibers with diameters around 50nm, which form a stable suspension at concentrations higher than 0.50% and a self-supporting gel at concentrations higher than 1.00%. Additionally, these nanofibers can stabilize oil-in-water emulsions with oil fraction more than 0.50 at chitin usage level of 0.01g/g oil. The droplet sizes of the resulting emulsions decrease with increasing chitin concentrations and decreasing oil fraction. Confocal laser scanning micrographs demonstrate the adsorption of chitin nanofibers on the emulsion droplet surface, which indicates the emulsion stabilization is through a Pickering mechanism. Our findings allow the direct application of chitin in the food industry without chemical modifications.
authors: Glycomics and Glycan Bioengineering Research Center (GGBRC), College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Weigang 1, Nanjing 210095, People's Republic of China.
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Glycomics and Glycan Bioengineering Research Center (GGBRC), College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Weigang 1, Nanjing 210095, People's Republic of China.
authors: Zhigang
authors: Z
authors: Chen
authors: College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Weigang 1, Nanjing 210095, People's Republic of China.
authors: Wenyang
authors: W
authors: Bian
authors: College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Weigang 1, Nanjing 210095, People's Republic of China.
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Feng
authors: College of Life Science and Technology, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang 453003, People's Republic of China.
authors: Zongwei
authors: Z
authors: Wu
authors: College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Weigang 1, Nanjing 210095, People's Republic of China.
authors: Peng
authors: P
authors: Wang
authors: College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Weigang 1, Nanjing 210095, People's Republic of China.
authors: Xiaoxiong
authors: X
authors: Zeng
authors: Glycomics and Glycan Bioengineering Research Center (GGBRC), College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Weigang 1, Nanjing 210095, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: twu@njau.edu.cn.
authors: Tao
authors: T
authors: Wu
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002686:Chitin / Q000737:chemistry*; D004655:Emulsions / Q000737:chemistry*; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000032:analysis*; D012995:Solubility; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004655:Emulsions; D014867:Water; D002686:Chitin
keywords: Emulsion stabilization; Nanofibers; Pickering mechanism; Regenerated chitin