A smart packaging film that ‘lights up’ under UV as meat loses freshness

Made with milk protein and modified plant pigments, a new packaging film uses color changes and fluorescence to monitor freshness in refrigerated mutton

Kyushu University

Facebook

Message

image: 

The developed packaging film detects ammonia and other volatile basic compounds produced during meat spoilage. The film responds through both visible color changes and fluorescence activation under UV light, allowing convenient freshness monitoring under different environmental conditions. The technology combines sensing, preservation, and sustainability functions within a single biodegradable packaging platform.

view more 

Credit: Fumihiko Tanaka/ Kyushu University

Fukuoka, Japan—Food spoilage causes chemical changes that are not always easy to detect by appearance alone. To provide a clearer indication of freshness and quality, researchers at Kyushu University have developed a smart packaging film that changes color and glows under ultraviolet (UV) light as meat loses freshness. Tested with refrigerated mutton, the film responds to compounds released during spoilage, offering two ways to track changes in food quality. The findings were published in the Chemical Engineering Journal on November 1, 2026.

Food packaging is generally designed to protect food from the external environment and spoilage, but it typically provides little information about food quality. Certain food components can act as freshness indicators and provide additional information about their condition. Anthocyanins, for example, are natural plant pigments that change color as acidity changes, making them useful for detecting chemical changes associated with food spoilage. However, these color changes can be subtle during early stages and may be affected by lighting conditions.

A research team led by Professor Fumihiko Tanaka and Associate Professor Fumina Tanaka of Kyushu University’s Faculty of Agriculture set out to address this challenge. Working with collaborators from Nanjing Agricultural University in China, Ghent University in Belgium, and Nguyen Tat Thanh University in Vietnam, they aimed to develop a more reliable and sensitive method for monitoring food freshness in real time.

“We wanted to combine color changes with fluorescence to make signs of spoilage easier to recognize,” says Xirui Yan, a JSPS researcher at Kyushu University and the paper’s first author. “Color provides a simple visual indication, while fluorescence under UV light offers a clearer signal when color differences are difficult to see.”

The team used casein, a protein found in milk, as the base of the film. To make it respond to signs of spoilage, they added anthocyanins extracted from black soybean seed coats. These natural pigments change color with acidity, and treating them with pyridine gave them a fluorescence response as well. The modified pigments were then combined with zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67), a porous metal–organic framework material, and incorporated into the casein film.

The researchers tested three film formulations containing increasing amounts of ZIF-67 to see how well they tracked freshness and helped preserve refrigerated mutton. The second formulation, called Z2, provided the best overall balance of sensing performance, preservation properties, and material use. The films also showed improved water resistance, antioxidant activity, and antibacterial activity compared with casein-only films.

As spoilage progressed, the mutton released ammonia and other volatile compounds that triggered changes in the film. The optimized Z2 formulation showed a clear fluorescence response from around day six under 365-nanometer UV light. Under ordinary light, the films also showed gradual color changes during storage. Together, these signals provided two ways to track changes in freshness.

Moreover, the films showed substantial disintegration and mass loss under the tested soil-burial and seawater conditions, suggesting potential for packaging that leaves less persistent waste. However, the disintegration results do not establish complete mineralization or long-term environmental safety. Future studies will be needed to test the films with other foods and under real supply-chain conditions, as well as to assess their stability, safety, scalability, and cost-effectiveness.

The films potentially have applications in smart food packaging, providing consumers, retailers, and distributors with an additional visual indication of freshness alongside conventional date labeling. By making changes in quality easier to recognize, the researchers hope to enhance food safety, reduce unnecessary food waste, and support sustainable food-packaging technologies.

“As food packaging evolves from passive protection to intelligent sensing, our film provides smart sensing that could ultimately support smartphone-based and artificial intelligence-assisted freshness monitoring,” concludes Fumihiko Tanaka.

###

For more information about this research, see “A casein-based dual-mode smart film enabled by pyridine-modified anthocyanins and ZIF-67 for real-time mutton freshness monitoring”, Xirui Yan, Fanze Meng, Jiao Zeng, Zhangbin Liu, Anqi Liu, Xinrui Mao, Reshaka Kavindi Malawara Arachchige, Francis Ngwane Nkede, Mohammad Hamayoon Wardak, Amna Bibi, Tran Thi Van, Fumina Tanaka, and Fumihiko Tanaka, Chemical Engineering Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2026.18134

 

About Kyushu University 
Founded in 1911, Kyushu University is one of Japan’s leading research-oriented institutions of higher education, consistently ranking as one of the top ten Japanese universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World Rankings. Located in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu—the most southwestern of Japan’s four main islands—Kyushu U sits in a coastal metropolis frequently ranked among the world’s most livable cities and historically known as Japan’s gateway to Asia. Its multiple campuses are home to around 19,000 students and 8,000 faculty and staff. Through its VISION 2030, Kyushu U will “drive social change with integrative knowledge.” By fusing the spectrum of knowledge, from the humanities and arts to engineering and medical sciences, Kyushu U will strengthen its research in the key areas of decarbonization, medicine and health, and environment and food, to tackle society’s most pressing issues.

---

Journal

Chemical Engineering Journal

DOI

10.1016/j.cej.2026.181346

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A smart packaging film that ‘lights up’ under UV as meat loses freshness

Article Publication Date

1-Nov-2026

Research supports communitywide efforts to fight bed bug infestations, expert explains

Virginia Tech

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

image: 

Virginia Tech researcher Warren Booth explained why bed bugs are difficult to detect. "Adults are about the size of an apple seed, while immature stages are much smaller and can easily remain unnoticed," he said. "Their ability to hide in tiny cracks and crevices makes accidental transport remarkably common."

view more 

Credit: Photo by Felicia Spencer for Virginia Tech.

Rather than being a poverty problem, bed bugs are actually everyone’s problem. 

In findings recently published in Parasites and Vectors, Virginia Tech’s Warren Booth cites evidence that bed bug infestations can affect anyone regardless of income, housing type, or location. Working alongside Cari Lewis, postdoctoral research associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the study examined the relationship between the geographic distribution of bed bug infestations and demographic data across metropolitan areas in Illinois, Oklahoma, and Ohio.

“A key finding of the research was the identification of reservoir populations: bed bug populations that persist over time and contribute to the spread of infestations beyond communities in which they are established,” said Booth, associate professor of urban entomology. “Importantly, these reservoirs of bed bugs occur across the socioeconomic spectrum, challenging the misconception that bed bugs are primarily a problem of disadvantaged communities.”

The researchers believe the findings indicate bedbug management strategies should evolve beyond individual residences to a more coordinated, community-level approach.

Booth, also an affiliate of the university’s Invasive Species Collaborative, Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens, Fralin Life Sciences Institute, and Global Change Center, shared more insights about this work and the unpopular pest.

Aside from reducing socioeconomic-related stigma, what else can we learn by better understanding reservoir populations of bed bugs?

“Rather than spreading simply between nearby locations, these populations are connected through networks of human movement and the transport of personal belongings, similar to the models used to examine disease transmission within populations.”

How do bed bugs impact the average person?

“As with mosquito bites, not all people who get bitten by bed bugs react to them. As such, some only know that they have an infestation when they start seeing black spots appearing on their white bed sheets. That’s because they feed and then defecate and a little blood comes out,” Booth said.

“Besides the gross-out factor, there can also be a substantial economic burden, as the cost to effectively treat a home infestation is high. If you live in a multi-unit building, it’s likely they will spread from you to your neighbors through wall voids and from there onwards. At that point, control can be difficult, emphasizing the importance of early detection,” he said.

What is driving recent news stories of increases in bed bug reports?

“Increased travel, delayed detection, multi-unit housing, insecticide resistance and even greater public awareness help explain increases in bed bug reports. However, higher reporting does not always mean there are more infestations. Reports often increase during late summer and after major travel periods when people return home from vacations. Large sporting events, concerts, conferences, holidays, and vacation travel create more tourism opportunities for bed bugs to hitchhike between locations. Infestations often go unnoticed until populations grow large enough to be detected,” Booth said.

What makes it possible for bed bugs to spread?

“Bed bugs are expert hitchhikers. They do not fly or jump, but they readily move into luggage, backpacks, purses, clothing, and other personal belongings. Infested luggage stored beside other bags, whether in aircraft cargo holds, overhead racks, or luggage compartments, can facilitate movement between travelers,” Booth said.

“They’re also difficult to detect. Adults are about the size of an apple seed, while immature stages are much smaller and can easily remain unnoticed. Their ability to hide in tiny cracks and crevices makes accidental transport remarkably common. Once carried to a new location, they leave their temporary shelter and seek a blood meal, establishing new infestations,” he said.

Does insecticide resistance contribute to the problem?

“Absolutely. Many bed bug populations are resistant to products that were once highly effective, especially pyrethroid-based insecticides. As a result, infestations often persist longer and grow larger before they are eliminated. The widespread availability of over-the-counter products can further complicate control because these treatments frequently fail to eliminate infestations completely. When infestations survive treatment, they continue to reproduce, spread, and increase the likelihood of additional introductions elsewhere,” Booth said.

What can people do to avoid bringing bed bugs home?

“Prevention starts with reducing opportunities for bed bugs to enter your belongings. When staying in hotels or vacation rentals, keep luggage off beds, upholstered furniture, and the floor whenever possible. Use the luggage rack provided, preferably after a quick inspection, or store luggage in an area less likely to harbor bed bugs, such as a tiled bathroom. It is also wise to inspect mattress seams, headboards, and nearby furniture for signs of bed bugs before settling into a room,” he said.

“After returning home, unpack immediately. Place clothing directly into a hot dryer or wash cycle, as high heat effectively kills bed bug adults, nymphs, and eggs. Carefully inspect luggage and store it away from sleeping areas until it can be checked or treated if necessary. Travelers should also remain mindful in public settings. Bags left on public transportation seats, hotel beds, or upholstered furniture may be exposed to hitchhiking bed bugs,” Booth said

What if they’re already in your house?

“If bed bugs are found at home, early intervention is critical. Infestations are much easier and less expensive to eliminate when detected early. Professional treatment by a licensed pest management specialist is often the most effective approach, particularly once bed bugs have become established,” Booth said.

Your newest research suggests that a coordinated, communitywide approach makes for the best strategy to fight bed bug infestation. What would such an approach look like?

“I envision that a coordinated, communitywide approach to bed bug control would shift management from treating individual infestations to addressing bed bugs as a shared problem, integrating surveillance, early detection, and geographic mapping of infestations across homes, multi-unit housing, shelters, hotels, and other high-risk locations,” Booth said.

“Management efforts would focus on simultaneous inspections and treatments of connected units and buildings, reducing re-infestation from neighboring sources. The approach could also incorporate insecticide resistance monitoring and population genetic analyses to track dispersal and sources of infestation, then standardize treatment protocols through this data-driven approach,” he said.

“Public education, resident engagement, and financial assistance programs that support early reporting and effective intervention are equally important, particularly in underserved communities. Through collaboration among public health agencies, housing authorities, researchers, extension personnel, and pest management professionals, I feel that such a program could transform reactive bed bug control responses into proactive, data-driven management that reduces bed bug prevalence at the community level.”

 

---

Journal

Parasites & Vectors

DOI

10.1186/s13071-026-07745-y

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Social vulnerability structures urban pest populations, but not reservoir occurrence

Lithium-free, non-flammable batteries lasting twice as long by Politecnico di Milano

The revolutionary membrane developed by a team from the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta" allows the use of fluoride ions – Results published in the journal Energy Storage Materials

Politecnico di Milano

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

image: 

3D model of a Fluoride Exchange Membrane (FEM), obtained via molecular dynamics simulations

view more 

Credit: Politecnico di Milano

A new polymer electrolyte to replace lithium ions in batteries. It’s the result of a research carried out by a team from the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering (DCMIC) "Giulio Natta" at Politecnico di Milano, which conceived and developed a revolutionary, non-flammable, quasi-solid gel membrane that enables the transport of fluoride ions within batteries at room temperature.

The study, published in the prestigious journal Energy Storage Materials, is the outcome of a collaboration between several professors and laboratories within DCMIC, thanks to an interdisciplinary approach that brought together different expertise in chemistry, materials engineering, electrochemistry and molecular dynamics. The key researchers involved were the coordinator Maurizio Sansotera, head of the Fluoritech laboratory; Luca Magagnin, head of the SEE Lab – Surface Engineering and Electrochemistry Laboratory, who was responsible for the electrochemical characterization; and Giuseppina Raffaini, whose contribution in molecular dynamics was fundamental to understanding the mechanisms underlying fluoride ion transport through the polymer membrane.

The study is pioneering precisely because it defines, for the first time, the concept of a Fluoride Exchange Membrane (FEM), by analogy with the widely used proton exchange membranes (PEMs), already employed in numerous applications, and anion exchange membranes (AEMs).

The advantages of fluoride-ion batteries are multiple and relevant, starting with their environmental impact, as they could make use of materials that are more readily available and far more abundant than lithium. Moreover, they could play an active role in the energy transition, in energy storage systems needed to store energy generated from renewable sources, thanks to a fundamental characteristic of this innovative material: its non-flammability. "Renewable energy sources have production peaks that occur at times that do not coincide with peak consumption. To address this problem, several European countries are developing storage systems for the energy produced, but the widespread adoption of these systems is often limited by concerns about the fire risk associated with batteries," explains Maurizio Sansotera, Professor of Fundamentals of Chemistry. "The technology we are developing is based on the use of a non-flammable polymer membrane that reduces the risk of fire, while also offering the advantage of using an element that is abundant and evenly distributed in nature."

Not only safer, but also lighter batteries capable of lasting longer, as they could offer higher theoretical energy densities. "We are talking about approximately 600 watt-hours per kilogram, compared with around 150–250 for standard lithium-ion batteries. In practice, this would mean roughly twice the battery life: an electric car could travel twice as many kilometres," says Luca Magagnin, Professor of Applied Physical Chemistry. "There are many possible applications, from energy storage systems to drones, satellites and aircraft."

Another fundamental aspect is that fluoride ion transport in the polymer electrolyte developed takes place at room temperature. "The quasi-solid membrane we have designed enables fluoride ion transport at room temperature. This makes it possible to avoid wasting the energy required to preheat the battery," emphasizes Giuseppina Raffaini, Professor of Chemistry and Materials. "In previous generations of fluoride-ion batteries, by contrast, operating temperatures of around 100–150 degrees were required to improve ionic conductivity, consuming part of the stored energy by dissipating it as heat."

The fluoride-ion gel membrane also makes it possible to overcome dependence on lithium and represents an important step forward towards the development of next-generation batteries, with the prospect of offering higher energy density, greater safety and improved sustainability.

---

Journal

Energy Storage Materials

DOI

10.1016/j.ensm.2026.105410

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Toward room temperature fluoride-ion batteries: quaternary ammonium-bearing fluoride-exchange membrane as a quasi-solid polymer electrolyte

The non-flammable, quasi-solid gel membrane that enables the transport of fluoride ions within batteries at room temperature

Batteries test rack

Credit

Politecnico di Milano

  

Can an AI ‘co-scientist’ accelerate cancer research

Nearly $7 million funds agentic AI tools to assist investigations into cancer’s most pressing problems

Harvard Medical School

Facebook

X
BlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

AT A GLANCE:

• A Harvard Medical School researcher has been funded by Cancer Grand Challenges to develop and test an agentic AI system that serves as a collaborator to accelerate oncology research.
• The AI “co-scientists” will tap a vast pool of data and other resources to develop new hypotheses, suggest experiments, and analyze results while human researchers remain at the center of scientific judgment and decision-making.
• Three selected Cancer Grand Challenges teams will evaluate the system in studies of next-generation CAR T-cell therapies, cancer initiation, and tumor-immune interaction.

A team led by Marinka Zitnik, associate professor of biomedical informatics in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, has received a grant of nearly $7 million from Cancer Grand Challenges to create artificial intelligence (AI) “co-scientists” that help cancer researchers analyze data, generate hypotheses, and suggest new experiments, speeding new knowledge and therapies.

The project, known as AURORA, includes an additional $4 million to three international teams across Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which will evaluate the effectiveness of the “co-scientists” in their ongoing studies of next-generation CAR T-cell therapies, cancer initiation, and tumor-immune interaction.

“By evaluating agentic AI co-scientists within selected Cancer Grand Challenges research teams, we hope to understand whether they can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of researchers, achieving advances in oncological research far beyond what humans can achieve alone,” said Zitnik, who also serves as associate faculty at the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University, associate member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and affiliated faculty at the Harvard Data Science Initiative. 

“Because of its complexity and unmet medical need, cancer research provides a unique test bed to demonstrate this new mode of doing science through human-AI collaborations,” she added. “If we’re successful, this system could generate insights that lead to the development of life-saving treatments.”

Cancer Grand Challenges is a global research initiative that identifies the toughest problems in cancer research today and supports a global community of world-class, interdisciplinary research teams in coming together to take them on. It was founded in 2020 by the two largest funders of cancer research in the world — Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute in the United States.

The AURORA project is funded by Cancer Research UK through Cancer Grand Challenges. It marks the first Cancer Grand Challenges project on AI and the first that spans multiple Cancer Grand Challenges-funded teams.

An AI member of the research team

AI models have grown increasingly sophisticated over the past several years and hold promise in many areas of biomedical research. Although AI has demonstrated capacity to reproduce known biological findings, Zitnik explained, systems that generate new hypotheses, test them in the lab, and learn from the results are still at an early stage. This need is especially critical for oncology research — a field marked by an incredible wealth and complexity of data.

To fill this gap, Zitnik is leading a team of scientists based in her lab to develop an agentic AI system that works alongside researchers through the full cycle of discovery. The system reasons across evidence from many sources, uses a large collection of linked scientific tools to propose testable hypotheses, and refines its reasoning as experimental results come in. It builds upon other AI tools developed at Harvard, including Zitnik’s ToolUniverse.

The new agentic system will serve as a conversational partner to human researchers. But unlike chatbots, the new AI collaborator will have the capacity to access and integrate all data available in existing scientific literature; databases; other biological AI tools such as AlphaFold, protein language models, and omics-based tumor models; and real-time experimental findings.

After calling on this vast repository of knowledge, the AI co-scientist can suggest new hypotheses and develop ideas for experiments to confirm or refute them, prioritizing time, budget, or whatever factors are important to the human investigators. It can then analyze the data from those experiments to suggest new scientific directions.

In the AURORA project, humans remain responsible for all scientific judgement and decision-making.

This process has the potential to significantly speed the pace and reduce the cost of research by eliminating many dead ends, Zitnik said. Rather than testing an idea through brute force — for example, individually silencing hundreds or thousands of genes to find one responsible for a specific disease feature — scientists will be able to pursue the most likely candidates from the start, shrinking the pool of possibilities and the time needed to find the answer.

Improvement over time

Evaluation is embedded throughout the system, Zitnik explained. Besides her own team’s AURORA grant, three research groups already leading other Cancer Grand Challenges projects, known as Cancer Grand Challenges Pioneer Teams, will receive approximately $1.3 million each in funding to add the AI co-scientist to their teams. These projects are led by scientists from the following teams:

• PROMINENT, which strives to distinguish genetic mutations that accumulate in cells from those that trigger cells to become malignant. These findings could eventually allow doctors to intervene before cancers develop.
• NexTGen, which is focused on adapting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells — used in an immunotherapy that has shown significant success in treating adult blood cancers — for treating pediatric solid tumors.
• MATCHMAKERS, which is trying to answer how T cells recognize cancer cells, a necessary step toward developing more effective and personalized immunotherapies.

Through frequent interactions with their “team member” powered by agentic AI, these groups will provide constant feedback that will test and improve the system over time — for example, changing the data it prioritizes to suggest ideas or preventing it from suggesting impractical experiments.

“A key challenge for AI in science is understanding how it can best support researchers working on real-world problems,” said Zitnik. “By testing the system against real scientific questions and experimental evidence, we hope to build a trusted, rigorously evaluated tool that helps researchers accelerate discovery.”

Transparent reasoning, tested in the lab

Rather than its guidance being a “black box” like some AI systems, with no way to trace the logic behind its suggestions, AURORA’s AI co-scientists will provide reasoning traces that allow users to understand the rationale behind every output. This feature is critical both to foster helpful feedback from the researchers using it and to encourage their trust in the system, Zitnik said.

As Cancer Grand Challenges Pioneer Teams test the system’s hypotheses in the lab, the AURORA team will compare its reasoning with the experimental results to measure how often AURORA’s AI co-scientists lead to findings that hold up. Over time, Zitnik hopes this approach will establish AI as a partner across biomedical research, well beyond cancer.

The AURORA team launched the project on Nov. 5 at Harvard, introducing the Pioneer Teams and hosting a panel of speakers from academia and frontier AI labs on what an AI would have to get right to join a cancer research team.

 

Leaf-derived coatings help hydrochar resist oxidation, pointing toward more durable soil carbon storage

Maximum Academic Press

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessage

image: 

Leaf-derived coatings help hydrochar resist oxidation, pointing toward more durable soil carbon storage

view more 

Credit: Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes

A research team has found that a naturally formed, water-repellent coating helps hydrochar resist chemical oxidation, revealing how plant leaf chemistry could influence the durability of carbon-rich materials intended for soil applications. The coating contains alkyl carbon derived from leaf waxes and cutin, with its composition varying among plant species. Removing it increased carbon loss during laboratory oxidation tests for hydrochar made from lotus leaves, palm leaves, and pine needles, while leaving thermal stability largely unchanged. These findings could guide biomass selection and processing strategies that preserve protective surface chemistry, potentially improving hydrochar's usefulness for soil carbon storage.

Hydrothermal carbonization converts biomass into hydrochar using heated, pressurized water, offering a way to process wet organic materials without energy-intensive predrying. Hydrochar has attracted interest for soil remediation, pollution control, and carbon sequestration, but its relatively low aromatic carbon content generally makes it less stable than biochar produced through pyrolysis. Previous research showed that compounds from plant cuticles can dissolve during processing and subsequently form hydrophobic surface coatings. However, how differences in these coatings affect hydrochar’s resistance to heat and chemical oxidation remained unclear, limiting understanding of their contribution to carbon persistence.

A study (DOI: 10.48130/ebp-0026-0012) published in Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes on 17 August 2026 by Fangfang Li's team, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, shows that coatings derived from plant cuticles protect leaf-based hydrochar against chemical oxidation, with protection influenced by coating composition and hydrophobic intensity, while coating removal produces no significant change in overall thermal stability.

The researchers compared hydrochars derived from corn leaves, lotus leaves, palm leaves, and pine needles, using cellulose-derived hydrochar as a control without a hydrophobic coating. Hydrothermal treatment was conducted at 260 °C for five hours, and acetone extraction enabled comparisons between coated materials and their extracted counterparts. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry identified coating compounds, while spectroscopy, elemental analysis, microscopy, and surface-area measurements characterized the materials. Thermogravimetric analysis assessed thermal stability, and potassium dichromate oxidation measured chemical resistance through carbon loss. The team also tested representative hydrophobic compounds to examine the relationship between molecular water repellency and oxidation resistance. Chemical analysis revealed that the lotus-derived coating was dominated by nonacosane-4,10-diol, a wax-derived compound, whereas coatings on the other leaf hydrochars mainly contained palmitic acid or 16-hydroxypalmitic acid associated with cutin breakdown. An index combining compound abundance and molecular hydrophobicity ranked the lotus coating highest, although this index did not directly predict measured surface wettability. Removing the coatings reduced alkyl carbon content by 15.27%–23.44% and exposed pores, increasing accessible surface area. Thermal measurements showed no significant change in overall stability: increases in the energy barrier to decomposition were offset by increases in a kinetic factor governing reaction frequency. Oxidation tests, however, revealed a clear protective effect. Carbon loss increased by 10.13%–16.01% after extraction for lotus-, palm-, and pine-derived hydrochars, with the largest increase occurring in the lotus material; corn-derived hydrochar showed no significant change. Tests of individual compounds further linked greater molecular hydrophobicity with stronger oxidation resistance. Together, the results indicate that the coating helps shield reactive surfaces and restrict oxidant access, while its alkyl-rich components themselves resist chemical attack. After extraction, differences in carbon loss among the four leaf-derived hydrochars were no longer significant, supporting the coating's role in explaining their contrasting chemical stability under the laboratory conditions used in this comparative experimental study.

The study identifies surface coating chemistry as an important consideration alongside bulk carbon structure when evaluating hydrochar stability. Preserving naturally occurring hydrophobic compounds could offer a route toward more oxidation-resistant materials for soil applications. However, the findings come from laboratory tests across a limited set of feedstocks; long-term soil studies are needed to establish whether this protection translates into greater carbon retention under environmental conditions.

###

References

DOI

10.48130/ebp-0026-0012

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.48130/ebp-0026-0012

Funding information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42267028, 42130711, 42007352, and 32101394), the Chongqing Natural Science Foundation (CSTB2022NSCQ-MSX1107), and the Project of Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences (P2021HH04).

About Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes

Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes (e-ISSN 3070-1708) is a multidisciplinary platform for communicating advances in fundamental and applied research on the interactions and processes involving the cycling of elements and compounds between the biological, geological, and chemical components of the environment.

 

---

Journal

Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes

DOI

10.48130/ebp-0026-0012

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Alkyl carbon in a hydrophobic coating enhances the chemical stability of hydrochar