Finding alternatives to the calorie-rich triglyceride fats found in chocolate are a high priority for chocolate manufacturers. In this hot paper, Bon and co-workers introduced fruit juice into chocolate by forming stable water-in-oil emulsions. The infused fruit juice replaces up to 50 % by weight of the total fat content in the chocolate. The approach uses a quiescent Pickering emulsion fabrication strategy to infuse the fruit juice in the form of emulsion droplets. White, milk and dark chocolate is produced using this method, which can also be applied in other systems such as aqueous acetic acid dispersed in sunflower oil.
(J. Mater. Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2JM34233B, Advanced Article)
Electrospinning of in situ crosslinked collagen nanofibers
The high porosity and large surface area of non-woven collagen fibers makes them excellent scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. When collagen is regenerated by electrospinning the fibers are not resistance to water, thus undergo dissolution and have poor mechanical firmness. In this hot paper, Wnek and co-workers report a single-step method of electrospinning crosslinked collagen fibers in situ. The crosslinked fibers exhibited swelling when placed in water, in contrast to the dimensional shrinking often seen in post-crosslinked electrospun collagen. Importantly, the porosity of the fibers was also maintained during water treatment. The team suggest the crosslinking technique could also be applied to other biomaterials for tissue engineering.
(J. Mater. Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2JM31618H, Advanced Article)
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