Transforming soy proteins into nanoporous aerogels using supercritical
carbon dioxide drying
Abstract
This study investigated the formation and characterization of aerogels
from soy protein isolate (SPI) at different pHs (6-10) using
supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) drying. The extraction yield of
proteins was 33% with 92% purity. The formed SPI hydrogels and
aerogels were characterized for their rheological properties, textural
properties, morphology, crystallinity, chemical structure, thermal
stability, and solubility. The gels formed at pH values of 7.0-10.0 were
able to form strong gels, where all the gels showed a shear-thinning
behavior. The hardness of the gels increased with the increase in pH
from 7.0 to 10.0. The resulting SPI aerogels upon SC-CO2 drying showed
outstanding properties, such as surface areas of 222-278 m²/g, pore
sizes of 8-11 nm, and pore volumes of 1.88-3.13 cm3/g. Their densities
were ~0.21 g/cm3 with high porosities of
~83%. Further, SEM images of aerogels showed
three-dimensional open porous structures, where the structures were more
heterogeneous at higher pH values, leading to a higher surface area. XRD
and FTIR data provided information about the crystallinity and changes
in the chemical structure of proteins, respectively. The main thermal
degradation peak for aerogels was ~295 °C, which was
slightly lower than that for SPI powder at 303 °C. The water solubility
of SPI powder increased with the formation of aerogels from 17-19% to
30-36%. Overall, this study provides one of the first reports on
generating SPI aerogels with high surface areas for their potential use
in food, pharmaceutical, and biomaterial industries.