• Energy Research

In the last decades, bio-derived natural materials, such as vegetable oils, polysaccharides and biomass represent a rich source of hydroxyl precursors for the synthesis of polyols which can be potentially used to synthesize "greener" polyurethane foams. Herein a bio-based precursor (obtained from succinic acid) was used as a partial replacement of conventional polyol to synthesize PU foams. A mixture of conventional and bio-based polyol in presence of catalysts, silicone surfactant and diphenylmethane di-isocyanate (MDI) was expanded in a mold and cured for two hours at room temperature. Experimental results highlighted the suitability of this bio-precursor to be used in the production of flexible PU foams. Furthermore the chemo-physical characterization of the resulting foams show an interesting improvement in thermal stability and elastic modulus with respect to the PU foams produced with conventional polyol.

Nanomaterials, due to their unique structural and functional features, are widely investigated for potential applications in a wide range of industrial sectors. In this context, protein-based nanoparticles, given proteins’ abundance, non-toxicity, and stability, offer a promising and sustainable methodology for encapsulation and protection, and can be used in engineered nanocarriers that are capable of releasing active compounds on demand. Zein is a plant-based protein extracted from corn, and it is biocompatible, biodegradable, and amphiphilic. Several approaches and technologies are currently involved in zein-based nanoparticle preparation, such as antisolvent precipitation, spray drying, supercritical processes, coacervation, and emulsion procedures. Thanks to their peculiar characteristics, zein-based nanoparticles are widely used as nanocarriers of active compounds in targeted application fields such as drug delivery, bioimaging, or soft tissue engineering, as reported by others. The main goal of this review is to investigate the use of zein-based nanocarriers for different advanced applications including food/food packaging, cosmetics, and agriculture, which are attracting researchers’ efforts, and to exploit the future potential development of zein NPs in the field of cultural heritage, which is still relatively unexplored. Moreover, the presented overview focuses on several preparation methods (i.e., antisolvent processes, spry drying), correlating the different analyzed methodologies to NPs’ structural and functional properties and their capability to act as carriers of bioactive compounds, both to preserve their activity and to tune their release in specific working conditions.