Validation of a Novel Technique and Evaluation of the Surface Free Energy of Food

  • Characterizing the physical properties of a surface is largely dependent on determining the contact angle exhibited by a liquid. Contact angles on the surfaces of rough and irregularly-shaped food samples are difficult to measure using a contact angle meter (goniometer). As a consequence, values for the surface energy and its components can be mismeasured. The aim of this work was to use a novel contact angle measurement method, namely the snake-based ImageJ program, to accurately measure the contact angles of rough and irregular shapes, such as food samples, and so enable more accurate calculation of the surface energy of food materials. In order to validate the novel technique, the contact angles of three different test liquids on four different smooth polymer films were measured using both the ImageJ software with the DropSnake plugin and the widely used contact angle meter. The distributions of the values obtained by the two methods were different. Therefore, the contact angles, surface energies, and polar and dispersiveCharacterizing the physical properties of a surface is largely dependent on determining the contact angle exhibited by a liquid. Contact angles on the surfaces of rough and irregularly-shaped food samples are difficult to measure using a contact angle meter (goniometer). As a consequence, values for the surface energy and its components can be mismeasured. The aim of this work was to use a novel contact angle measurement method, namely the snake-based ImageJ program, to accurately measure the contact angles of rough and irregular shapes, such as food samples, and so enable more accurate calculation of the surface energy of food materials. In order to validate the novel technique, the contact angles of three different test liquids on four different smooth polymer films were measured using both the ImageJ software with the DropSnake plugin and the widely used contact angle meter. The distributions of the values obtained by the two methods were different. Therefore, the contact angles, surface energies, and polar and dispersive components of plastic films obtained using the ImageJ program and the Drop Shape Analyzer (DSA) were interpreted with the help of simple linear regression analysis. As case studies, the superficial characteristics of strawberry and endive salad epicarp were measured with the ImageJ program and the results were interpreted with the Drop Shape Analyzer equivalent according to our regression models. The data indicated that the ImageJ program can be successfully used for contact angle determination of rough and strongly hydrophobic surfaces, such as strawberry epicarp. However, for the special geometry of droplets on slightly hydrophobic surfaces, such as salad leaves, the program code interpolation part can be altered.show moreshow less

Export metadata

Additional Services

Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Author:Tugce Senturk ParreidtORCiD, Markus Schmid, Carolin Hauser
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/foods6040031
ISSN:2304-8158
Parent Title (English):Foods
Publisher:MDPI AG
Place of publication:Basel
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of first Publication:2017/04/20
Release Date:2025/02/10
Tag:contact angle; drop shape analysis; edible coating; image processing; surface energy
Volume:6
Issue:4
Article Number:31
institutes:Institut für Chemie, Material- und Produktentwicklung
Kompetenzzentrum für Nachhaltige Ernährungs- und Ressourcenwirtschaft (K.NER)
Research Themes:Materialien & Produktionstechnik
Licence (German):Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International
Verstanden ✔
Diese Webseite verwendet technisch erforderliche Session-Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie diesem zu. Unsere Datenschutzerklärung finden Sie hier.