Soy proteins are low cost and readily available byproducts of the largest edible oil and biodiesel production in US and represent valuable plant biopolymer resource for environmentally friendly materials. The major hindrance of converting soy proteins into advanced materials is their poor solubility and dispersibility in water and most common organic solvents due to their high molecular weights and globular structures. In this work, a green and convenient mechanical approach was investigated for its capability to efficiently disperse soy protein isolate (SPI) in water and prepare concentrated and stable aqueous colloids without needing any chemicals and extra heat. One optimally processed SPI suspension improved the dispersion of 93% SPI following centrifugation (5,000 rpm, 15 min). Such aqueous SPI dispersion, with average AFM height of 6 nm and particle diameter of &lt;100 nm based on TEM, remained stable under refrigerated condition for at least 2 weeks. The treated SPI also implied improved film forming and emulsifying property by showing higher transparency of cast film and lower surface tension. Self-assembling of treated SPI into ultra-fine pure SPI fibers from aqueous colloids was possible, providing an attractive non-chemical alternative for direct fiber fabrication. This green approach may be applied on other globular proteins to solve the problem of difficulty in aqueous dissolution.

Green approaches to preparation of aqueous soy protein colloids and pure protein fibers

251st National Meeting (2016)

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