A study on the release behavior of ethyl maltol during pyrolysis of its metal complexes

Abstract

Recently, the requirements for highly stable flavor additives are continuously increasing to meet new demands on storage and usage. To solve this issue, we propose to improve the thermal stability of volatile flavors through a novel complexation strategy. In this work, four ethyl maltol-containing metal complexes were synthesized and structurally characterized. The thermal stability of flavor precursors in both oxidative and pyrolysis conditions was significantly improved about 100−200 °C compared with that of ethyl maltol. Furthermore, the real-time monitoring of product formation by a photoionization mass spectrometry and the analysis of volatile components by GC–MS confirmed that ethyl maltol can be effectively released from complex pyrolysis at relatively high temperatures, proving that the exploitation of metal complexes as flavor precursors is a practical strategy not only to enhance the thermal stability and but also to effectively regulate the release temperature of flavors.