Colloidal foam preparation

In the case of aerated protein icings, however, stabilizers are essential. Where hot water is used, gelling-type stabilizers work best (agar, gelatin, Irish moss extract). In cold foams, prepared with cold water, cellulose-type gums are used to contain water in the foams colloidal precipitates, such as are formed through the reaction of carrageenin and protein, are very helpful. 

FIGURE 4.22 Image of two-dimensional foam prepared from saline solution of 4 wt.% of eommercial ethoxylated alcohol surfactant containing emulsified octane where oil drops have drained out of foam films into Plateau borders. (Reprinted from J. Colloid Interface Sci., 150, Koczo, K., Lobo, L., Wasan, D., 492. Copyright 1992, with permission from Elsevier.)... 

Colloidal particles, foams used to collect and separate, 12 22 Colloidal powders, 23 55-56 Colloidal silica, 22 380, 382, 384 applications of, 22 394 modification of, 22 393-394 preparation of, 22 392-393 properties of, 22 391-392 purification of, 22 393 Colloidal silica gels, 23 60 Colloidal solids, 7 293-294 Colloidal stability, 7 286-291 10 116 22 55 Colloidal stabilizers, in polychloroprene latex compounding, 19 857 Colloid mills, 8 702 10 127 Colloids, 7 271-303 23 54. See also Polymer colloids analysis, 7 296 applications, 7 292-296 conducting, 7 524... 

Most food products and food preparations are colloids. They are typically multicomponent and multiphase systems consisting of colloidal species of different kinds, shapes, and sizes and different phases. Ice cream, for example, is a combination of emulsions, foams, particles, and gels since it consists of a frozen aqueous phase containing fat droplets, ice crystals, and very small air pockets (microvoids). Salad dressing, special sauce, and the like are complicated emulsions and may contain small surfactant clusters known as micelles (Chapter 8). The dimensions of the particles in these entities usually cover a rather broad spectrum, ranging from nanometers (typical micellar units) to micrometers (emulsion droplets) or millimeters (foams). Food products may also contain macromolecules (such as proteins) and gels formed from other food particles aggregated by adsorbed protein molecules. The texture (how a food feels to touch or in the mouth) depends on the structure of the food. 

Emulsions and foams are two other areas in which dynamic and equilibrium film properties play a considerable role. Emulsions are colloidal dispersions in which two immiscible liquids constitute the dispersed and continuous phases. Water is almost always one of the liquids, and amphipathic molecules are usually present as emulsifying agents, components that impart some degree of durability to the preparation. Although we have focused attention on the air-water surface in this chapter, amphipathic molecules behave similarly at oil-water interfaces as well. By their adsorption, such molecules lower the interfacial tension and increase the interfacial viscosity. Emulsifying agents may also be ionic compounds, in which case they impart a charge to the surface, which in turn establishes an ion atmosphere of counterions in the adjacent aqueous phase. These concepts affect the formation and stability of emulsions in various ways ... 

Most of the work on foam fractionation reported in the literature is exploratory and on a laboratory scale. A selected list of about 150 topics has been prepared with literature references by Okamoto and Chou (1979). They are grouped into separation of metallic ions, anions, colloids, dyes and organic adds, proteins, and others. 

The surface or interfacial phenomena associated with colloidal systems such as emulsions and foams are often studied by means of experiments on artificially prepared flat surfaces rather than on the colloidal systems themselves. Such methods provide a most useful indirect approach to the various problems involved. 

Protein-polysaccharide cross-linking gives rise to protein conjugates with modified properties, such as an enhanced stability to heat, organic solvents, and proteolysis, which could bear biotechnological applications, but could also be used for preparation of gels, foams, and colloids. 

The applications of colloid solutions are not restricted to paints and clay. They are also to be found in inks, mineral suspensions, pulp and paper making, pharmaceuticals, cosmetic preparations, photographic films, foams, soaps, micelles, polymer solutions and in many biological systems, for example within the cell. Many food products can be considered colloidal systems. For example, milk is an interesting mixture containing over 100 proteins, mainly large casein and whey proteins [6,7]. 

Foams may be prepared by either one of two fundamental methods. In one method, a gas such as air or nitrogen is dispersed in a continuous liquid phase (e.g. an aqueous latex) to yield a colloidal system with the gas as the dispersed phase. In the second method, the gas is generated within the liquid phase and appears as separate bubbles dispersed in the liquid phase. The gas can be the result of a specific gasgenerating reaction such as the formation of carbon dioxide when isocyanate reacts with water in the formation of water-blown flexible or rigid urethane foams. Gas can also be generated by volatilization of a low-boiling solvent (e.g. trichlorofluoromethane, F-11, or methylene chloride) in the dispersed phase when an exothermic reaction takes places, (e.g. the formation of F-11 or methylene chloride-blown foams). 

Sample Preparation of Foam and Water Samples and Humic Substances Isolation. All foam and water samples were filtered through 0.45- Lim silver filter using stainless-steel filtration units. Silver filtration of Como Creek and Suwannee River foam samples resulted in build up of a brown extract on the filter paper, which was readily solubilized in 0.1 N sodium hydroxide. This extract was refiltered through silver filters as a sodium hydroxide solution. This fraction was believed to be colloidal in nature and was treated as a separate humic fraction, called the "foam-extract" fraction. A part of the filtered foam was freeze dried directly and considered "raw" foam. Fulvic and humic acids were isolated from foam and stream-water samples via the XAD-8 adsorption technique developed by Thurman and Malcolm (77), freeze dried, and weighed. To obtain a sufficient mass of humic substances, each entire sample was used for one extraction. As multiple samples were not extracted, calculation of the error associated with humic substances isolation cannot be made, and the contributions of humic substances to the DOC content must be regarded as estimates. 

Homogenaer Any machine for preparing colloidal systems, including foams, by dispersion. Examples colloid mill, blender, and ultrasonic probe. 

The previous sections reviewed recent advancements in sequential electrostatic assembly to form NP-shelled structures. An alternate route to NP assembly arises from interfacial activity and stabilization of NPs. Colloidal particles with partial hydrophilic and hydrophobic character are known to behave like surface-active molecules (surfactants), particularly when adsorbed to a fluid-fluid interface. The assembly of small particles at interfaces is of relevance to advance fields that traditionally feature emulsions, foams, and flotation systems. It is also of pertinence to the development of new fields such as the synthesis of novel materials that include Janus particles, colloidosomes, porous solids, and anisotropic particles, all recently prepared by particle assembly at interfaces [36,38]. 

Fig. 12 Dispersed systems prepared from fluid mixtures and colloidal particles/nanoparticles. For oil-water mixtures (top), emulsion drops of OfW emulsions and W/O emulsions are stabilized with hydrophilic or hydrophobic particles, respectively. For air-water mixtures (bottom), air-in-water foams or water-in-air powders can be likewise stabihzBd through the use of nanoparticles. Reproduced from [36], with permission from the publisher...

Making use of constrained polymerisation of divinylbenzene on surfactant-modified colloid silica, Jang and Lim prepared carbon nanocapsules and mesocellular foams. Later, they reported that mesoporous carbons with highly uniform and tunable mesopores were fabricated by one-step vapour deposition polymerisation using colloidal silica nanoparticles as template and polyacrylonitrile as carbon precursor. Hampsey et al. recently reported the synthesis of spherical mesoporous carbons via an aerosol-based, one-step approach using colloidal silica particles and/or silicate clusters as template. ... 

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