Porous wheat gluten microparticles obtained by electrospray: Preparation and characterization

Currently, microporous polymer materials are being studied extensively due to their attractive properties which allow for a wide potential of applications, such as prolonged-release systems (PRS). The objective of the present work was to prepare and characterize porous microparticles of wheat gluten (WG) using the electrospray technique. The effect of the physicochemical parameters of the solution and electrospray technique parameters on the morphology and size of the materials obtained was studied. For all of the concentrations of WG, porous microparticles with sphere geometry were obtained. At higher concentrations of WG (8% w/v), higher values of viscosity (0.32405 +/- 0.002 Pa.s), density (0.997 +/- 0.0005 g/cm(3)), and particle size (1.42 +/- 0.71 mu m) were obtained, while at lower concentration, high stability rheological is presented, which exhibited Newtonian fluid behavior. Characterization by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction indicated that the material obtained has a potential application in the PRS industry.