Judy Lee

Hot topic: sonication increases the heat stability of whey proteins.

The thickening or gelling of protein-based dairy streams and ingredients upon exposure to heat has been an ongoing problem in dairy processing for many decades. This phenomenon can restrict the range of dairy product options and reduce manufacturing efficiencies by limiting the type and extent of heat treatment that can be used. In this report, we outline a novel approach to overcoming this problem. The use of preheating treatments to induce whey protein aggregate formation in whey products is well known in the field. However, we show that the application of ultrasound for a very short duration after such a heating step breaks down these aggregates and prevents their reformation on subsequent heating, thereby reducing the viscosity increase that is usually associated with this process. This novel technique has the potential to provide significant economic benefit to the dairy manufacturing industry.

The range of ambient radius for an active bubble in sonoluminescence and sonochemical reactions.

Numerical simulations of nonequilibrium chemical reactions inside an air bubble in liquid water irradiated by ultrasound have been performed for various ambient bubble radii. The intensity of sonoluminescence (SL) has also been calculated taking into account electron-atom bremsstrahlung, radiative attachment of electrons to neutral molecules, radiative recombination of electrons and ions, chemiluminescence of OH, molecular emission from nitrogen, etc. The lower bound of ambient radius for an active bubble in SL and sonochemical reactions nearly coincides with the Blake threshold for transient cavitation. The upper bound is in the same order of magnitude as that of the linear resonance radius. In actual experiments, however, the distribution of ambient radius for active bubbles may be narrow at around the threshold ambient radius for the shape instability. The threshold peak temperature inside an air bubble for nitrogen burning is higher than that for oxidant formation. The threshold peak temperatures depend on ultrasonic frequency and acoustic amplitude because chemical reactions inside a bubble are in nonequilibrium. The dominant emission mechanism in SL is electron-atom bremsstrahlung except at a lower bubble temperature than 2000 K, for which molecular emissions may be dominant.

Effect of ultrasound on the physical and functional properties of reconstituted whey protein powders

Aqueous solutions of reconstituted whey protein- concentrate (WPC) & isolate (WPI) powders were sonicated at 20 kHz in a batch process for 1-60 min. Sonication at 20 kHz increased the clarity of WPC solutions largely due to the reduction in the size of the suspended insoluble aggregates. The gel strength of these solutions when heated at 80°C for 20 min also increased with sonication, while gelation time and gel syneresis were reduced. These improvements in gel strength were observed across a range of initial pH values, suggesting that the mechanism for gel promotion is different from the well known effects of pH. Examining the microstructure of the whey protein gels indicated a compact network of densely packed whey protein aggregates arising from ultrasound treatment. Comparable changes were not observed with whey protein isolate solutions, which may reflect the absence of larger aggregates in the initial solution or differences in composition.

Influence of the bubble-bubble interaction on destruction of encapsulated microbubbles under ultrasound

Influence of the bubble-bubble interaction on the pulsation of encapsulated microbubbles has been studied by numerical simulations under the condition of the experiment reported by Chang et al. [IEEE Trans. Ultrason Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 48, 161 (2001)]. It has been shown that the natural (resonance) frequency of a microbubble decreases considerably as the microbubble concentration increases to relatively high concentrations. At some concentration, the natural frequency may coincide with the driving frequency. Microbubble pulsation becomes milder as the microbubble concentration increases except at around the resonance condition due to the stronger bubble-bubble interaction. This may be one of the reasons why the threshold of acoustic pressure for destruction of an encapsulated microbubble increases as the microbubble concentration increases. A theoretical model for destruction has been proposed.

Bubble colloidal AFM probes formed from ultrasonically generated bubbles.

Here we introduce a simple and effective experimental approach to measuring the interaction forces between two small bubbles (approximately 80-140 microm) in aqueous solution during controlled collisions on the scale of micrometers to nanometers. The colloidal probe technique using atomic force microscopy (AFM) was extended to measure interaction forces between a cantilever-attached bubble and surface-attached bubbles of various sizes. By using an ultrasonic source, we generated numerous small bubbles on a mildly hydrophobic surface of a glass slide. A single bubble picked up with a strongly hydrophobized V-shaped cantilever was used as the colloidal probe. Sample force measurements were used to evaluate the pure water bubble cleanliness and the general consistency of the measurements.

Spatial distribution enhancement of sonoluminescence activity by altering sonication and solution conditions.

An intensified charge-couped device (CCD) camera was used to capture raw images of multibubble sonoluminescence, generated by 168 and 448 kHz ultrasound. The effect of various air and surfactant concentrations, and pulse conditions on the acoustic pressure distribution, percentage of standing wave component, the structure of the sonoluminescence activity, and speed of streaming was investigated. It was observed that the enhancement in the sonoluminescence intensity by appropriate degassing, pulsing, and addition of sodium dodecylsulfate were closely related to an expansion in the spatial distribution of sonoluminescence activity. This broadening in the spatial distribution is correlated with a high percentage of standing wave component. This effect stems from the reduction in the attenuation of the acoustic field by inhibiting the formation of large coalesced bubbles.

Spatial Distribution of Acoustic Cavitation Bubbles at Different Ultrasound Frequencies

Images of sonoluminescence, sonophotoluminescence and sonochemiluminescence are recorded in order to semi-quantitatively compare the spatial distribution of the cavitation activity at three different ultrasound frequencies (170 kHz, 440 kHz and 700 kHz) and at various acoustic amplitudes. At all ultrasound frequencies investigated, the sonochemically active cavitation zones are much larger than the cavitation zones where sonoluminescence is observed. Also, the sonochemically active bubbles are observed at relatively lower acoustic amplitudes than that required for sonoluminescence bubbles to appear. The acoustic power required for the observation of the initial cavitation bubbles increases with an increase in the ultrasound frequency. The cavitation bubbles are observed relatively uniformly throughout the reactor at 170 kHz whereas they are located away from the transducer at the higher frequencies used in this study. While these observations highlight the complexities involved in acoustic cavitation, possible reasons for the observed results are discussed.

Mechanism of Enhancement of Sonochemical-Reaction Efficiency by Pulsed Ultrasound

The enhancement of sonochemical-reaction efficiency by pulsed ultrasound at 152 kHz has been studied experimentally through absorbance measurements of triiodide ions from sonochemical oxidation of potassium iodide at different liquid volumes to determine sonochemical efficiency defined by reacted molecules per input ultrasonic energy. The mechanism for enhancement of the reaction efficiency by pulsed ultrasound is discussed using captured images of sonochemiluminescence (SCL), and measured time-resolved signals of the SCL pulses and pressure amplitudes. The high sonochemical-reaction efficiency by pulsed ultrasound, compared with that by continuous-wave ultrasound, is attributed both to the residual pressure amplitude during the pulse-off time and to the spatial enlargement of active reaction sites.

Development and optimization of acoustic bubble structures at high frequencies

At high ultrasound frequencies, active bubble structures are difficult to capture due to the decrease in timescale per acoustic cycle and size of bubbles with increasing frequencies. However the current study demonstrates an association between the spatial distribution of visible bubbles and that of the active bubble structure established in the path of the propagating acoustic wave. By monitoring the occurrence of these visible bubbles, the development of active bubbles can be inferred for high frequencies. A series of still images depicting the formation of visible bubble structures suggest that a strong standing wave field exists at early stages of wave propagation and weakens by the increase in the attenuation of the acoustic wave, caused by the formation of large coalesced bubbles. This attenuation is clearly demonstrated by the occurrence of a force which causes bubbles to be driven toward the liquid surface and limit standing wave fields to near the surface. This force is explained in terms of the acoustic streaming and traveling wave force. It is found that a strong standing wave field is established at 168 kHz. At 448 kHz, large coalesced bubbles can significantly attenuate the acoustic pressure amplitude and weaken the standing wave field. When the frequency is increased to 726 kHz, acoustic streaming becomes significant and is the dominant force behind the disruption of the standing wave structure. The disruption of the standing wave structure can be minimized under certain pulse ON and OFF ratios.

Bubble population phenomena in sonochemical reactor: I Estimation of bubble size distribution and its number density with pulsed sonication – Laser diffraction method

To characterize the bubble populations (size and its number distribution) in a sonochemical reactor, a simple but powerful technique based on the Fraunhofer laser diffraction (LD) has been proposed. In this method, the acoustic wave disturbance to the laser probe in the sonochemical reaction field was eliminated by the temporal separation using pulsed sonication (pulsed LD). With this relatively simple strategy, the temporal development of the bubble size distribution could be evaluated by pulsed LD. A number density of bubbles was estimated by using a calibration data obtained with monosized standard particles. In addition, the effect of pulse length and a surfactant on the bubble population phenomena in a multibubble system are discussed.