ABSTRACT
Potato chips are a popular snack, well-liked because of their texture-flavor combination. Potato chips are made by frying slices of potato in vegetable oil to achieve a crispy texture. Frying potato slices initiates the Maillard reaction, resulting in chemical changes that enhance taste, color, and texture, but also undesired acrylamides, which are suspected carcinogens. The application of pulsed electric field (PEF) technology is commonly used in French fry processing operations to prolong cutting blade sharpness and reduce waste, energy consumption, and water usage. Despite these attributes, PEF systems have not yet gained widespread adoption by potato chip producers. In the current study, Lamoka potatoes were PEF-treated prior to continuous frying into potato chips. The effect of specific energy at 0.75 kJ/kg (Low-PEF) and 1.5 kJ/kg (High-PEF) and electric field strength of 1 kV/cm, frequency of 24 kV, and pulse width of 6 µs versus untreated (control) samples was studied, then batches of 250 g of slices were fried at 170 °C or 185 °C for two frying times to obtain potato chips with acrylamide levels below the California Proposition 65 limit (275 ng/g). The Lamoka potato chip product quality metrics that were assessed include moisture, fat, reducing sugars, asparagine, acrylamide, chip color, and texture. PEF treatment of Lamoka potatoes resulted in chips fried in 10 % less time, lower oil content by 8 %, and a decrease of reducing sugars by 19.2 %, asparagine by 42.0 %, and acrylamide by 28.9 %. The PEF fried chips were lighter in color but maintained textural attributes compared to continuous frying cooking. The process of frying potato slices at 170 °C for 150 s with High-PEF yielded potato chips with acrylamide content below the California Proposition 65 limit; which speaks to the health implications for consumers and the quality and safety of these chips.
ABSTRACT
Synthesis and characterization of dendrimers containing thienylbenzene repeating units, red-emitting benzothiadiazole core, and triarylamine peripheries that bear naphthyl units are reported. The relevant dendrimers of different generations are classified as G(nb) (n=1-3), while the tert-butyl dendrimers G(na) with the acceptor alone were also synthesized to serve as control chromophores that avoid donor-acceptor interactions. The resulting dendrimers are capable of harvesting photon energy through efficient energy transfer among donor-acceptor moieties, so that highly luminescent red fluorophores result. Transient fluorescence studies suggest that the energy transfer and its efficiency are approximately unity in all G(a) dendrimers, whereas the rate of energy transfer for the G(b) dendrimers is suppressed, that is, charge transfer from the core to the periphery is a significant quenching pathway. These dendrimers are amorphous in nature with high glass transition temperatures (176-201 degrees C). Electroluminescent devices were fabricated by using the dendrimers as hole-transporting emitters, and the devices exhibit promising red emission parameters.
